Bristol faces 2% council tax rise as Lib Dems win budget plans
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Spending plans: Bristol faces a 2% council tax rise following the budget meeting
Plans to devolve power from Bristol City Council to local residents have been approved following the budget meeting yesterday.
Attacking the “centralisation culture” in the city, council leader Barbara Janke’s Liberal Democrats fought off amendments to the proposed spending plans from Labour and Conservative councillors.
Up to £500,000 will be spent on the Neighbourhood Partnership programme – which allows local people to decide how money will be spent on some services in their area. Cllr Janke said the cash was “essential” to make the programme work.
Another £500,000 of spending was agreed for plans to cut the city’s carbon footprint by 40% by 2020 — as well as a further £500,000 to develop digital and creative media in the city.
The near-£400million spending plans have come at a price though, with the Liberal Democrats having to make £12.3million of cuts in order to keep council tax increases pegged at 2%.
These cuts will come from reducing agency staff, training, and restructuring senior staff. There will also be cuts in care packages for the elderly who are given support to live at home.
In education, there will be reductions in grants and a review of administration staff.
But extra spending to cope with increasing demand for care services — including an extra £4.5 million for adult care — and money for initiatives to fight the recession, attract investment and jobs were passed during the five-hour meeting.
The budget was attacked by Tory deputy leader George Gallop as a “disgrace”, while Labour leader Helen Holland said it lacked transparency.
Meanwhile, Tory proposals to ditch £250,000 of support for the Legacy Commission, which co-ordinates ethnic minority projects, was described by the council leader as “socially divisive”.
Councillor Shirley Brown left the council chamber when Tory councillor Jay Jethwa put forward the amendment to scrap the Commission.
It was the same issue which led Councillor Brown to describe councillor Jethwa as a “coconut” at last year’s budget meeting, which led to Councillor Brown being charged with causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.
Labour plans to fund home insulation, which they said could have saved householders £150 a year in heating bills and made a real contribution to the city’s green ambitions, were rejected.
Party leader Helen Holland said she “doubted if anything else we are doing would make such an immediate contribution to ameliorating the affects of climate change”.
A second amendment to reduce travel fares for 16- and 17-year-olds in Bristol was also thrown out. Cllr Mark Bradshaw, Labour’s Deputy Leader, accused the Lib Dems of going back on a pledge to support the plans.
“This proposal was agreed by all parties at the previous Council meeting but the ruling Lib Dems have refused to put money into a scheme that they pretended to support just last month,” he said.
“We proposed a one year pilot to help 7,000 young people in Bristol. It wouldn’t break the bank, but at least these young people now know that the Lib Dems do not support them.”
Meanwhile, a proposal for the council to make a one-off payment of £50,000 to help support the maintenance of the Matthew ship on Bristol’s waterfront.
Former Lord Mayor Cllr Royston Griffey withdrew his amendment after the Lib Dems promised to help Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion Ltd (the lessee and operator of the ship) with its business plan and help to fund it in the future.
“The whole aim was to get all party support for the project and now that this has been achieved I was happy to withdraw the amendment asking for a £50,000 grant,” said Cllr Griffey. “All who value the Matthew will be holding the Council to its promise made today, because the money is still needed.”
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