Bridgend Council’s Cabinet has published the final 2024-25 council budget (pdf).
The budget is set to be debated and put to a vote next Wednesday (28th February 2024).
The amount the council needed to find in cuts and savings – just over £13million – was down by around £3million compared to the draft budget, giving the council a little more wriggle room, but not much.
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There were a little over 2,800 responses to the council’s “Shaping Bridgend’s Future” budget consultation (pdf). This was double the response rate of last year’s consultation. The key points are:
- There was support for cuts to net zero commitments, libraries, concessionary leisure fees, adult learning and school attendance support.
- People wanted budgets protected for schools, social services for vulnerable adults and children, additional learning needs and nursery services.
- A majority (60%) backed the council seeking to cover the full cost of providing services through fees (“full cost recovery”). Also, 80.5% agreed that remodelling services should be prioritised (i.e. leaving unfilled vacancies and changing department structures, leading to redundancies).
- 93.2% supported reviewing the leisure services contract and 76% supported reviewing external contracts (i.e. with charities).
- 64.4% wanted to keep council tax “as low as possible”. Only 35.6% either agreed with the council’s proposed 9.5% increase or supported an increase “as high as is necessary to protect services”.
As for some of the key changes in response to committee scrutiny and the consultation feedback:
- The proposed 5% cut to school budgets has been scaled back to 3% (though this didn’t quite go as far as the scrutiny committees would have liked).
- A proposal to close Bridgend bus station – originally included as part of plans for 2025-26 – has been removed. The council will “discuss options for the station over the coming year”.
- Proposed cuts to street cleaning and dog waste bag dispensers have been scrapped.
- Talks will start with town & community councils over collaboration on Bridgend town centre’s shopmobility scheme and cemetery maintenance.
- Several proposals have been dropped or pushed back into future financial years. These include: merging or closing smaller schools, withdrawal of “meals on wheels”, cutting nursery provision to the legal minimum and the redevelopment of Bridgend Indoor Bowls Centre to generate extra income.
