Bridgend Council has published its final budget plans for the 2025-26 financial year (pdf). A debate and vote will be held in full council next week (26th February).
There’s some uncertainty over precisely how much BCBC will have to spend as the Welsh Government currently faces difficulties getting its budget (which partially sets council budgets) through the Senedd. BCBC had to find £9.1million in cuts and savings this year – which is down by around £4million compared to last year.
Use the drop-down menu to move from section to section.
1,637 people took part in the budget consultation (pdf) – which is significantly down from last year. In summary:
- A majority supported cuts to net zero/climate change commitments, libraries, concessionary pricing, youth centres, leisure facilities, maintenance of open spaces and services to improve school attendance.
- There was more opposition to cuts to services protecting young people and vulnerable adults, school budgets, support for children with additional learning needs and road maintenance.
- People were evenly divided on whether to cut funding to waste and recycling services and litter picking/street cleanliness services.
- 45.4% wanted to keep council tax “as low as possible”; 28.2% backed the council’s favoured option of a 4.5% council tax increase. A majority (54.6%) supported the principle of increasing council tax.
Many recommendations from the scrutiny committees were either accepted or partially accepted (pdf). The Cabinet did, however, reject committee recommendations concerning:
- Reducing the proposed cuts to school budgets.
- Reconsidering cuts to waste enforcement.
- Reconsidering increases to bereavement fees.
- Delaying the proposal to bring waste and recycling services back in-house”.
The only change from the draft budget is that a proposal to cut £726,000 from the Bridgend Music Service has been dropped. Before anyone celebrates too much, this is now appearing as an unfunded budget cut.
BCBC states they will use this opportunity to consider “alternative options for the service”. We can therefore expect further Cabinet and scrutiny committee reports on the future of the music service over the coming year.
