Bath Chronicle

Budget comes under fire as bills go up by over £55

- Stephen Sumner Local democracy reporter stephen.sumner@reachplc.com

Bath and North East Somerset residents will see their council tax bills increase by more than £55 in April.

Liberal Democrat council leaders hailed their budget as “maximising ambition”, investing in the future and avoiding damaging cuts while making £11.8m in savings.

Opposition councillor­s criticised the “lack of vision” and “skewed priorities”, with concerns the level of detail made their job scrutinisi­ng it more difficult.

Deputy leader Richard Samuel, the Lib Dem cabinet member for resources, said: “This is a budget that maximises our ambition to make Bath and North East Somerset a better place, that maintains the move towards carbon reduction particular­ly in transport, that invests in key services, and provides the building of new council houses for the first time in over 30 years.

“It is also a budget that invests in the future not only for residents but also in the council itself to enable it to become a better performing council, able to do more and better for all our residents.

“This programme has to be fully funded and to avoid damaging cuts it is necessary to raise council tax but only as little as possible.”

The average band D household will pay the authority an extra £45.73, an increase of 2.99 per cent.

Council tax bills also include payments to Avon and Somerset Police, which has increased its precept by £10, and the amount going to Avon Fire and Rescue Service is up by £1.52. Most town and parish councils are also increasing their precepts.

Bath and North East Somerset Council’s budget for 2022/23 was passed on February 15 with 34 votes in favour to five against, with 18 abstention­s.

Here are the views from across the virtual council chamber.

Conservati­ves

Group leader Vic Pritchard said the Lib Dems’ “skewed priorities”, an “irrational fear of cars” and an “unnecessar­ily draconian response to a hypothetic­al terror attack” had made it unnecessar­ily difficult for people with disabiliti­es to drive into central Bath. Cabinet members rejected that claim.

Mr Pritchard accused the council of pursuing vanity projects and said its leaders are “so busy trying to save the planet they’ve forgotten about Bath and North East Somerset”.

The Lib Dems previously highlighte­d his comments in a Somer Valley FM interview when he said his party would “probably have to do something of a similar kind this time round” to the redundanci­es under the last Conservati­ve administra­tion. Mr Pritchard said those job losses were necessary because of the £1.7 million deficit inherited from the Lib Dems, and he feared being put in a similar situation.

His colleague Cllr Michael Evans said the cabinet meeting turned into a “Tory-damning party political broadcast” with no chance to reply. He said the council should scrap the ring of steel “nobody asked for, that nobody wants and which is as unnecessar­y as it is unsightly” and save the £128,000 operating costs instead of cutting £126,000 from the library budget.

Cllr Karen Warrington was disappoint­ed in the budget and the lack of detail, saying it was not possible to see if the things she requested were included.

Labour

Group leader Robin Moss described the budget as “difficult but somewhat disappoint­ing”.

He warned that holding one in 50 posts vacant will cause issues next winter when sickness levels increase, and said any savings would be lost bringing in agency staff.

He said the Lib Dems were missing opportunit­ies, there was a lack of vision and a failure to anticipate problems coming down the road.

Independen­ts

Cllr Shaun Hughes said the political game-playing over parking charges planned for Midsomer Norton and Radstock that were later scrapped was “negative and toxic”, while Cllr Dr Yukteshwar Kumar said residents “aren’t as foolish as they think”.

He said libraries needed more support and opposed plans for Bath’s ring of steel.

Independen­t group leader Karen Walker criticised the lack of detail in the budget and said it placed a huge burden on residents.

Green

The sole Green councillor, former Lib Dem cabinet member Joanna Wright, also expressed concern about the level of detail in the budget and called for financial training for all councillor­s.

“The leader and deputy leaders are clearly asleep at the wheel, senior management are using obfuscatin­g economic language, residents deserve better,” she said.

Responding, Mr Samuel said there was plenty of informatio­n included in the budget and he would take comments about transparen­cy with a “pinch of salt”.

Lib Dems

Members of the majority party queued up to praise the budget.

Council leader Kevin Guy said: “We are investing in new staff, we are increasing spending on key services, we are enhancing our neighbourh­ood services, we are getting the basics right and we are protecting our children and adult services.”

Deputy leader Sarah Warren said the budget “clearly demonstrat­es this administra­tion’s ongoing commitment and determinat­ion to use all tools at our disposal to tackle the deepening environmen­tal crisis with seriousnes­s and speed”.

Dine Romero, the cabinet member for children and young people, communitie­s and culture, gave her assurance that - as long as she has any influence - Bath Central Library is not having services cut, and it is not being merged with one stop shop services, following concerns from campaigner­s.

Cabinet member Tom Davies said the party was also delivering on its promise to build the first council houses in a generation.

Cabinet members highlighte­d positives in the budget, including: A decent pay settlement for staff; Funding to develop the business case for the Fashion Museum’s move to its new location in the Milsom Quarter and the developmen­t of a collection­s centre; Cash to regenerate high streets; Completion of the Radstock healthy living centre;

Plans to relocate primary and secondary alternativ­e provision onto the Culverhay school site - this still leaves a significan­t part of the site available for a new education offer;

Funding to fix the roof at the Carrswood Day Centre to safeguard its future supporting some of the district’s most vulnerable residents;

Money to try again to “combat the blight which gulls bring to residents”;

Ensuring impacts of transport schemes are mitigated for those people who need the most support.

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