Gedling Borough Council needs to find £500,000 worth of savings and extra income over the next three years to balance its books.
Leisure services will take the bulk of the hit, with plans to review the price and structure of its gym and swimming pool memberships for leisure centres in Arnold, Calverton, Redhill, and Carlton.
The authority is also planning a price review of Bonington Theatre, Arnold, as well as reviewing operations at the Richard Herrod Centre in Carlton. The authority also wants to increase swim school sessions.
Budget reduction proposals across leisure services equates to £399,000 up to 2024/25.
There are also plans for a garden waste service fee increase to generate an extra £24,000 and a review of fees at cemeteries to generate an extra £1,000.
There are also plans for a vacancy freeze for one year.
In total, the savings will come from income generation and cuts and efficiencies totalling £545,000.
The plans will need approval from full council on Thursday, March 3, where the whole budget for Gedling Borough Council will be discussed.
At the same meeting, the council will also look to increase Council Tax by 2.89 per cent, which equates to £5 extra for a Band D property – around 42p a month.
Future Council Tax increases will be dependent upon future spending decisions, total local government funding and the achievement of efficiency savings, the council said.
Pressures such as a reduction in government grants and the impact of Covid have been cited as causes for some of the problems the authority is facing.
The council says Gedling was the “worst affected council in England” for core spending power in 2021/21 and for 2021/22.
Core spending power measures the core revenue funding available for local authority services, including Council Tax and locally retained business rates.
The council states: “There remains a significant amount of uncertainty and risk around the financial impact of Covid-19 in the medium term due to the potential increased service demand arising from the economic impact; the ongoing impact on income for council services for example leisure, and local tax collection reductions; and now to a lesser extent, the risk of ongoing response work being required.
“There remains a risk that the Covid financial impacts are higher than estimated and in the absence of additional government funding these will need to be met from an increase in savings/budget reductions in other council services.
“For both 2020/21 and 2021/22 the full costs of Covid have not been covered in full by government grant and the council has been required to use its finite reserves to cover the deficit.
“No further government grant funding is expected for 2022/23 despite income levels not being anticipated to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2023/24.”
There is also a capital programme of works planned up to 2024/25 as part of the budget.
Some of the proposals for the year 2022/23 include:
-Three CCTV cameras (£65,000) with final locations to be determined as part of ongoing work to reduce crime and disorder.
-Colwick Rectory Play Area Refurbishment (£100,000) – a refurbishment of the play area funded by an external grant.
-St Mary’s Play Area Refurbishment (£100,000) – a scheme to refurbish a play area subject to securing suitable external funding.
-Car park resurfacing (£65,000) – A combination of resurfacing and fencing works to improve the condition of the Hallams Lane car park in Arnold and the Haywood Road South car park in Mapperley.
-Holocaust Memorial and Cherry Tree Memorial and Reflection Circle (£35,000) – a space in Gedling Country Park to allow residents to reflect upon the impact of the Holocaust and provide a Memorial and Reflection Circle to allow residents to remember residents who have lost their lives.
-Flood alleviation works (£60,000) – schemes to address flooding issues in the Bentwell Avenue lagoon and to refurbish Colwick Meadow pumps.
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