The budget responds to increasing demand for adult social care and rising costs in children’s services, and will provide new school places, care homes and additional road maintenance.
Central Bedfordshire Council recently launched a public consultation on a range of budget proposals designed to reduce costs by £32million which will help to pay for a huge increase in demand for older people’s residential care and rising costs of children’s services.
Over 2,000 people took part in the public consultation and the feedback the Council received was extremely helpful in setting a budget.
The budget gap is mostly addressed through proposals which improve efficiency or generate income. However, this was not enough, so the budget also includes increasing Council Tax by 5 per cent and a few changes to services.
Around 60 per cent of residents’ Council Tax is used to fund adult social care and children’s services, and the demand and cost in these areas is increasing.
The Council has had to make tough decisions, but this budget ensures they can continue to provide vital services for their residents.
They are reshaping the organisation to reduce costs by £10million; reducing non-essential spend and losing some staff.
The vast majority of council services will continue unchanged. They will:
- invest in new school places
- transition schools to the two-tier system
- provide more specialist school places for children with special educational needs
- provide new care home facilities and leisure centres
- invest in maintaining our roads, including more money for cleaning roadside road drains to help alleviate flooding
Leave A Comment