Parking will remain free at South Gloucestershire Council-run car parks and could soon be scrapped at Kings Chase shopping centre, under the authority’s annual budget.
Residents face a 2.99 per cent council tax increase, including one per cent for adult social care, while frontline services vital to communities will be protected despite a programme of savings totalling £9.5million in 2022/23 and £23.6million over the next four years.
A new park will be created in Cadbury Heath to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, with £12million allocated to potholes and road resurfacing next year and £25,000 spent to get the Tour of Britain cycle race to ride through the district in a bid to boost tourism.
Read more: Council tax could rise by four per cent in South Gloucestershire
But the Conservative ruling group’s proposed budget also includes council staff redundancies and cutbacks including the end of subsidised costs for the HandyVan household repairs service for over-60s and the disabled.
Grimsbury Farm, a community farm in Kingswood which the authority owns and is open to the public for free, will become “financially self-sustainable”, eventually saving the council £50,000 a year.
Pest control service charges could rise, councillors will have to buy their own printers – clawing back another £2,000 – and management fees for prison library services at Eastwood Park and Leyhill will increase by £25,000.
And the local authority believes it can recoup an extra £510,000 a year by reviewing all its traffic regulation orders and making parking signs clearer to provide better guidance where restrictions apply.
The four-year balanced budget is expected to be rubber-stamped by cabinet on Monday (February 7) before going to full council for final approval on February 16.
There will be more money for street cleaning, the youth employment hub, tackling the climate emergency, such as converting more of the organisation’s fleet to electric, and upgrading schools, including Baileys Court School in Bradley Stoke.
A £1million “prevention fund” will be created to help public health and social care services tackle inequalities, helping people to help themselves, while free activities and meals for kids during school holidays will be extended by three years.
The council will review the historical parking charges at the Kingswood shopping mall, which it bought for £10million last year, with a decision in March.
Housing developers will be charged for the first set of black bins and recycling boxes, saving the authority £120,000.
The location of the new £500,000 park in Cadbury Heath has not been revealed but will “enhance an existing open space”.
A funding shortfall of about £14million will be plugged using reserves, although this is less than previously expected.
Council leader Cllr Toby Savage said: “This budget supports the whole of South Gloucestershire in taking positive steps forward past the pandemic and focuses on the priorities of local people.
“We are making sure investment is made in looking after our communities, doing our part to tackle climate change and inequality of opportunity, giving children the best start in life and providing the sensible and prudent financial management and value for money that residents have come to expect.
“Through this budget, I am proud our record investment into improving local school buildings will continue to give children the best environments in which to learn and that we are providing increased support for children to learn and to experience our amazing local libraries.
“Our amazing and vibrant communities are what make South Gloucestershire such an amazing place to live in and we are determined to continue our record investment into making sure they are at their best.
“Not only have we been able to achieve all of this but we are doing all of this while presenting a four-year balanced budget – a position very few councils across the county find themselves in.”
Cabinet papers say that after crunching the numbers “it is not currently considered necessary to make service level reductions” but there will be “both reductions and increases in staffing as the council seeks to realign resources across services”.
They say the authority aims to minimise redundancies through “natural turnover” of employees and training workers to move between roles.
“However, it is recognised that this will not be possible in all instances and the council holds a level of funding to support potential severance costs,” the reports say.
“Decisions taken within the programme of reviews have the potential to have significant impact on the council’s workforce.”
A council spokesperson said: “Areas where there are anticipated to be reductions are time-lagged to allow for workforce planning and redeployment opportunities.
“Accordingly, we are not anticipating significant need for redundancies.”
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