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A cross-party Budget Scrutiny Group – established earlier this year – has published its first set of recommendations as part of the planning process for the 2026-27 Bridgend Council Budget (pdf).
The Budget Scrutiny Group consists of the Chief Executive, BCBC’s Finance Officer, the Council Leader, Cabinet Members for Resources & Finance, Group Leaders and the Chairs of the Council’s Scrutiny Committees.
The Budget Scrutiny Group's Recommendations (Summary)
- Proposals for the Council to spend money upfront to generate longer-term savings (known as “Invest to Save”) should provide better analysis of savings figures and timescales. Flood prevention should be a priority and approached in this “Invest to Save” manner. BCBC should learn best practices from neighbouring local authorities and consider setting up an emergency response centre/service.
- There needs to be a full review of how the council’s directorates are structured and what they do. Consideration should be given to establishing a central engineering team/unit, as engineers are currently spread throughout different departments.
- The council’s one-off spending on new projects (capital spending) is “fragmented and piecemeal” and isn’t making the best use of favourable borrowing rates.
- There should be a review of which council assets can be sold off, and whether the best use is being made of existing buildings. Also, the Cabinet should consider cutting or removing discretionary payments to senior council office holders (proposed last year but not included in the final budget). There was further support for cutting bureaucracy around grant applications.
- South Wales Police should be asked to pay towards the running costs of town centre CCTV, as they make the most use of it.
- BCBC should consider above-inflation increases to fees not set by other bodies. The council should also take a more aggressive approach to the enforcement of fly-tipping and overrunning roadworks.
- A further 1% reduction to school budgets and possible cuts to education welfare services should be reconsidered. Consideration should be given to introducing a federated school model (i.e. sharing headteachers) to enable smaller schools to remain open.
- Extra capital funding should be provided for social care, particularly to increase the number of in-house residential care places. There was also support for Bridgend Council to “act aggressively” in the local housing market, taking on more HMOs under their ownership and building more council housing.
- Support for co-located library services with leisure and other community services as part of a “community hub” model.
The Group also requested extra information to inform the budget-setting process. This includes (pdf):
- Detailed breakdowns of BCBC’s contribution to Shared Regulatory Services (run jointly with Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff councils) and BCBC’s marketing & communications budget.
- Information on how decisions are made regarding closing small schools.
- The number of nursery spaces available at the county’s schools, and further details around how much childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds costs BCBC.
- School governor vacancies.
- Further information about internal reviews into cemetery services and vehicle fleet services.
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