Cuts will ‘strip council services to the bone’

Major cuts planned by North Somerset Council will “strip our services to the bone,” one councillor has warned.

Closing libraries, reducing bin collections, cutting the council tax support given to the district’s 7,000 lowest-income households, introducing new parking charges, and asking locals to donate money are all on the table as councillors attempt to plug the £53m black hole which North Somerset has in its budget across the next three years.

At a meeting of the council’s executive on Wednesday, executive member for climate, waste, and sustainability Annemieke Waite said: “Years of underinvestment has brought this council to a point where we face yet again a budget shortfall which legally we are required to close, so cuts need to be made, efficiencies introduced, and this time they will strip our services to the bone I am afraid.”

Waite said: “To have to make cuts like these really goes against everything I stood for at the elections in ‘23. And I do have real concerns about the potential impact of some of these proposed cuts and what they will do to the vulnerable in our communities.

“And yet without more government funding we have no choice but to put all of these on the table.”

So far, the council has drawn up £45m of cuts and savings to make across the next three years as it waits to find out what its “settlement” — the amount of money it is given by the government — will be for the next year.

In a meeting on Wednesday councillors discussed a budget “shortfall” – photo: Liberal Democrats

Council leader Mike Bell thanked council officers who had been working on drawing up the savings proposals while themselves “at risk.” He said: “It’s not an easy environment for anyone to be operating in.”

North Somerset Council has already voted through plans to cut black bin collections to three weekly and to introduce new parking charges in Clevedon, Nailsea, and Portishead.

The council is also proposing postponing the inflationary increase to councillors allowances for a year. The consultation on the council’s budget also asks if people would be prepared to make a “voluntary contribution” of up to or more than £1,000.

Many of the cuts will hit North Somerset’s most vulnerable.

A total of £2.4m is proposed to be cut from across the council’s children’s services department, while £9.7m could be cut from across the adult social services and housing budgets.

That includes a £1.5m saving from cuts to council tax support — which one councillor warned could be “so discriminatory that it is actually illegal.”

Closing some of North Somerset’s 14 council libraries is also being considered as a way to save £433,000.

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— North Somerset Council (@NorthSomersetC) December 2, 2024

Councils have to balance their budgets by law, but a major increase in demand for adults and children’s social care is driving up expenditure at councils across the country quicker than they can raise revenue.

The problem is not unique to North Somerset.

Last year, the leader of neighbouring Bath and North East Somerset Council warned: “If the funding situation — particularly for adults and children’s services — is not rectified by this government or the next government, it is only a matter of time before all local authorities in the United Kingdom go bankrupt.”

But North Somerset Council says it effectively gets £50m less funding each year than other councils in the area, due in part to having historically had a lower rate of council tax.

The extent to which councils can increase council tax is capped at a specific percentage by the government, meaning that a maximum increase in an area with lower council tax will generate less new income than in areas that already charge more.

The council has launched a petition to government calling for a “fair deal” for the council.

Council tax rises are expected to be capped at 5 per cent again this year — although North Somerset Council’s consultation on its budget asks what people would think of a 15 per cent council tax increase.

Main photo: John Wimperis

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