With a reduction in the grant from central government of £9.5million for the year and no rise in Council Tax, Wiltshire Council’s budget for 2014-2015 includes some hefty cuts and some significant rises in the charges and fees the Council levies for some of the 354 services it provides.
Where fees and charges are being increased, the rises are often considerably above the inflation rate.
The draft budget is being discussed by Cabinet at its meeting today (February 11) – which is also expected to approve the continued freeze in Council Tax.
The budget has already come unscathed from a special meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee and it will be set by February 26.
• Cuts will be made to subsidies for public transport – mainly buses. These have not yet been specified.
• There will be a 3.7 per cent rise in house rents – “in accordance with rent restructuring”.
• The Council have allowed a sum of £2,548,000 to cover a possible one per cent rise in staff pay, a return to incremental pay increases, and the shoring up of the staff pension fund.
• The capital expenditure on the Campus policy, the Broadband improvement scheme and the announced investment in highways are not affected.
For Marlborough there are both specific and notable rises in fees and charges and some freezes:
• Marlborough’s car parking charges will not increase in April. But the Council has not ruled out a rise in these charges – and other fees and charges – during the year.
• At the Marlborough Leisure Centre charges for swimming will rise between 4.24 and 10 per cent. There are no increases in swimming charges at Salisbury’s Three Rivers centre.
• Fees for market space in Marlborough High Street will rise from £6.32 a metre to £6.50 a metre – a rise of 2.85 per cent.
As has already been reported, there will be a severe cut to the Council’s Youth Services. A cut of £500,000 could mean the loss of about 150 staff.
A petition calling on the Council to protect youth services has been started – and in the first two days collected 1,100 signatures. The Council has countered criticisms of the cuts by saying that only eight per cent of Wiltshire’s teenagers use the youth services.
On Monday (February 10) Jane Scott, the Council Leader, and most members of the Council’s Cabinet faced a consultative forum of young people. It was very well attended.
Across the county:
• The charges for home to school transport will rise in September 2014 by between 4.29 and 5.49 per cent.
• There will be no increases in the various charges made in the Council’s libraries – including fines for the late return of books.
• Most burial fees are rising by just over five per cent (these fees do not apply in Marlborough.) There will still be no charge for the burial of a child. But the cost of ‘a kerb, border or cover stone – including initial inscription’ for a child’s grave will go up by 120 per cent – still only costing £265.
• Marriage and civil partnership ceremonies in registry offices on Fridays and Saturdays will cost five per cent more.
• There is no increase in the charges for casino licences.
• Rent of pitches for gypsies and travellers will go up by 3.19 per cent to £55.61 per week.
• Some pest control charges are rising.
• Some licences for keeping wild animals and for zoos go up by 25 per cent.
Over the next four years Wiltshire Council needs to find savings of £120 million – that compares with the savings of £90 million it has made over the past four years.
Marlborough News Online will report the full implications of specific cuts as and when they are agreed by the Council.
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