Street lighting and cleaning crews could be cut to save cash
STREET lights, road maintenance staff and cleaning teams could all be cut under budget proposals for one Welsh council.
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council will consider a number of drastic savings ahead of a special council meeting next week.
On Wednesday, members of the joint scrutiny committee will address proposals to increase council tax by 4.9% ahead of a full council meeting on February 14.
The news, which could generate £730,000, comes after findings from the Wales Audit Office stating the borough has the “lowest level of usable reserves of all Welsh councils”.
In September, it was predicted the council would finish the financial year with an overspend of £1.2m.
With a revised funding gap of £3.2m for 2019-20 (excluding schools), these are some of the budget cuts the council will consider:
Cutting street lighting
The budget for street lighting is currently £437,000 with a forecast overspend of £54,000 during 2018-19. To reduce that, the council is considering: ■ Switching off street lights at roundabouts, junctions on main roads and in residential areas at midnight – saving £115,000; ■ Switching off residential street lights at midnight – saving £75,000;
■ Switching off street lights at roundabouts and junctions on main roads after midnight – saving £40,000;
■ Keeping one in four street lights on in residential areas after midnight – saving £50,000;
Charging for care at school breakfast clubs
At the moment breakfast clubs run every morning across the borough from 8am until 9am and provide a free breakfast to all children attending primary education.
There is now a proposal to introduce a charge of 50p per day per child for the provision of “childcare” in order to generate income from September.
It would only apply to those children who attend the club between 8am and 8.20am.
Reducing crews
Despite recent investment in the highways network, there are 22 miles of “poor condition” residential highways in the borough.
Currently there are two highways crews who deal with maintenance including patching and potholing.
During 2018/19 the council is forecasting an overspend of £7,000 within the Highways Reactive Maintenance budget. To address this, councillors will consider a proposal to remove one crew (three members of staff) to make savings. A business case for the savings highway maintenance states: “Operating with just one crew will result in a significant decrease in the level of repairs that can be carried out on the Blaenau Gwent highways and potentially impact upon its intervention rates, which directly affect the council’s ability to defend insurance claims and conversely its insurance premium costs.”
Reducing staff in cleansing teams According to Blaenau Gwent council, increased levels of investment have improved the “cleanliness and appearance” of the area.
The cleaning service currently has five teams, with four members of staff per team. Under the proposals, councillors will consider:
■ Maintaining the number of street cleaning staff – creating no savings;
■ Reducing the street cleansing teams from five to three crews – saving £260,000;
■ Maintaining five teams and reducing the number of staff from four to three per team – saving £128,000;
Reducing the council’s refuse fleet This option is being considered due to a reduction in household waste and an increase in recycling.
The council is planning to buy a new recycling vehicle after receiving Welsh Government funding. At the same time it is now proposing to reduce their refuse fleet by one.
Reducing council allowances
The budget for council member allowances member is set by the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) for Wales. However, Blaenau Gwent council is considering lowering the allowance allocated to members by £15,000.
As past and current members traditionally do not take all of their allowances, it is thought this will not have an impact.
Cutting grants for small clubs
In 2017-18 a total of 85 grants totalling £24,670 were awarded by Blaenau Gwent council. This is in addition to 448 grants totalling £42,156 from a Members Special Levy and £2,700 given in allotment grants.
Under the budget cuts there is a proposal to “cease the award” of all three types of grants.
The business case for this proposal states: “This may have a detrimental impact on the sustainability of many of the small clubs that access the grants.
“However, the individual grant contributions are small.”
Reducing assisted transport following new criteria
This proposal to reduce assisted transport will be dependent on three things: approval of the policy, the capacity to review all attendees and fewer citizens being eligible for assisted transport.
Councillors will consider whether to maintain the current vehicles and staff or reduce the fleet by one vehicle, one driver and one escort. This follows after a reduction in vehicles and staff over the last few years as well as the amalgamation of day service facilities. Reducing housing solution budgets The council is proposing to reduce the housing solution and services budget by £13,000.
This follows after a reduction in the service as a result of more emphasis on homelessness prevention.
Among other things, the budget contributes to the cost of bed-and-breakfast temporary accommodation.
As a result the report warns that as housing benefits do not cover B&B costs, the shortfall in costs could have to be met by the housing service. Completing community transfers
In 2019 the council earmarked 24 sports facilities to be transferred over to the local community.
Of these, 23 are currently being transferred, while negotiations are ongoing with one.
The council will now consider completing these transfers. Once complete, this will mean eight grounds maintenance staff and the associated plant and vehicles will no longer be necessary. asset