Higher tax and fuller bins loom
Royal Borough: Council reveals draft budget for 2021/22
Weekly black bin collections face being axed and council tax could rise in the Royal Borough as the council looks to save millions in its budget for next year.
The council’s draft for the 2021/22 draft budget has set out to deliver nearly £8million in savings over the next financial year.
The paper will be discussed by cabinet tonight (Thursday). If approved, it will go out for public consultation on Monday before a final budget is presented to the council in February.
Speaking to the Advertiser yesterday (Wednesday) Council leader Andrew Johnson (Con, Hurley and Walthams) backed the ‘difficult’ proposals and called on residents to ‘rise to the challenge’ of finding ways to save.
He said: “It was never an easy budget to put together and we are having to reduce a lot of things that I would have liked to continue.
“We face coming out of the pandemic with the best budget to not only preserve our financial stability, but also continue investing and protecting the most vulnerable by delivering core services.
“I will be asking people that do respond to the consultation, if they want to, say, keep weekly bin collections, what we’re going to need is a proposal that counters that.
“If residents rise to that challenge that would be absolutely fantastic.”
One of the most significant savings included in the draft budget is switching black bin collections from weekly to fortnightly, saving £175,000 but going back on a Conservative manifesto pledge. Collections for food and recycling bins would remain weekly.
According to Councillor Johnson, there is evidence that reducing general waste bin collections helps to increase recycling, something he hopes would help the council meet its climate change and sustainability objectives.
He added that if the council were to receive additional financial support from the Government, something that could potentially be confirmed later this week, a review of this saving may be possible.
Meanwhile, a saving of £300,000 could be made by ‘remodelling’ community warden services in the borough.
According to Cllr Johnson, the council would not cut all of the wardens, but reduce the number, and focus them on ‘hotspot areas’.
Despite the savings, more money is expected to be spent in next year’s budget than in 2020/21. This will be funded by increasing the overall council tax bill by 5 per cent, in the form of a 2 per cent council tax rise and a 3 per cent increase to the adult social care precept.
To increase council tax by any more, the council would have to hold a referendum, but Cllr Johnson continues to lobby the Government to remove the cap and allow a greater rise.
He said: “I’m still very much of the view that local authorities, particularly such as ours who are so far down the scale of council tax charges, should at least be given the freedom to potentially increase council tax to a level more akin to
our near neighbours.”
Under the proposals, Band D council tax would rise by £54.32 to £1131.73.
Other proposed savings include reducing library opening hours, making a saving of £118,000. Funding for arts centres including Norden Farm and The Old Court in Windsor will also be reduced.
A total of £800,000 is expected to be saved in children’s services. Some of the savings will include removing all discretionary travel awards and ‘simplifying’ the council’s therapy offer.
More than £2million would be saved in adult social care. These include developing ‘alternative options’ for supporting vulnerable residents, ‘maximising’ income from resident contributions, and closing the Windsor Day Centre and Oakbridge Day Centre.
On the transformation of services, Cllr Johnson said: “There’s a lot of innovative and very clever thinking going into a lot of these proposals, particularly in the field of adult social care.”
On the two closing day centres, he added: “The reality is that hardly anybody uses them and we think there a far better ways of providing some of those support and outreach services that don’t include hosting them in those particular buildings.”
Subject to approval by cabinet this evening
(Thursday), the draft proposals will go out for public consultation in electronic and paper form starting on Monday.