With the expectation of further cuts to services to keep within budget in 2025/26, Shropshire Council is consulting on some of the options for reducing costs.
It asks not only whether people are happy with an increase of 4.99% (which will happen regardless of the consultation) and whether people would accept a further 2% increase on top of that. It is suggesting that bin collections are reduced to every three weeks, except green waste which will be collected every two weeks. It proposes converting more streetlights to LED, even turning off more streetlights in the early hours of the morning. It wants to raise parking charges and increase the use of the Shrewsbury park and ride.
While the consultation is about budget savings, the council is also planning to spend a huge £122 million on capital projects next year, half of it on transport (mostly the North West Relief Road).
The council asks those responding to rank these cost saving measures in order of importance:
- Reducing costs and improving efficiency by changing how we operate
- Increasing income raised through fees and charges
- Reducing spending on suppliers, contracts and people we buy services from
- Reviewing staffing levels.
Council tax
The maximum the council can increase council tax by next April, without holding a referendum, is 4.99%. That’s made up of 2.99% on council tax, 2% on the adult social care precept. This equates to an extra £1.65 a week for a band D property and will raise £10 million a year. The consultation asks whether you agree with this rise or not? The question is odd because the reality is that, given the dire state of its finances, the council has no option but to raise council tax by the maximum. The council is also asking another question. Would you agree with raising council tax by an additional 2% if the government allowed it? There was no mention of allowing councils the option of raising council tax by more than 4.99% in the council funding settlement announced by the government on Wednesday. Such a rise is only likely to be allowed if the council files for S114, bankruptcy.
Bin collections
If raising council tax by 6.99% was not controversial enough suggestion, the council is considering reducing the frequency of bin collections. Currently, nonrecyclable waste (black bins) are collected every two weeks. The same is true for recyclable waste (purple bins), paper and cardboard (blue bags) and garden waste (green bins), though green bins are only collected if you pay the £56 annual charge.
The council is planning to move to three weekly collections of either non-recyclable waste collections or both non-recyclable waste and recycling collections. Green bins will still be collected every two weeks because that’s what people have paid an extra fee for. While three-weekly collection of the purple bin and the blue sack might be acceptable to many, a three weekly collection of the black bin will be controversial.
People will be concerned about festering bins and vermin getting in to the bins. Rats can apparently get through a gap one centimetre wide. Food waste must currently be put in the black bin (though no one will notice if you put it in the green bin), making bins more attractive to rats. It would be easy for rats to get into overfull black bins if the lid does not close.
Shropshire Council is not currently suggesting it will refuse to collect overfull bins but this happens in other councils, so I would not be surprised if that happened under the current council administration.
Three weekly black bin collection could encourage households to be more diligent in separating recyclables from their waste. On the other hand, it could lead to more contamination in the purple bin or fly-tipping.
Streetlights
Shropshire Council has been way behind other local authorities in converting its streetlights from halogen (orange) to LED (white) bulbs, despite the Lib Dems urging this move to save money and reduce the council’s carbon footprint for several years.
Most lights are now converted but there are about 1,133 lights waiting for conversion. The council says it favours a capital investment of £500,000 to do the job and this will yield estimated revenue savings of £109,000 per year. It also favours converting heritage lantern streetlights with historic style bulbs to LEDs (c. 950 lanterns). This would require a capital investment of £950,000 and yield an estimated revenue savings of £104,000 per year.
What the council doesn’t favour is turning more streetlights between midnight and 5am which could save up to £209,000 of revenue per year after a £395,000 capital investment.
What the council doesn’t mention is the carbon saving that would be made by all three options. Neither does it mention that the money for conversion must be borrowed and how long that borrowing will be for.
Parking charges and park and ride
[Note: the introduction to this section in the consultation currently asks only whether you would like to answer questions on parking and park and ride in Shrewsbury, whereas the proposal for increased parking charges would affect the entire county.]
Increasing parking charges would bring an income of £0.5 million a year but the council gives no indication of how much charges will increase.
Ludlow Park and Ride service is safe from cuts as it is grant funded to 2026/27. However, the council gives two options for Shrewsbury’s Park and Ride, which costs £250,000 a year to run. It’s preferred option is to increase the frequency of services to grow passenger numbers and income. The second option would be to scrap the service entirely. That would have major implications for Shrewsbury town centre and would lead to the town becoming even more clogged by traffic.
Other options for budget cuts
To save £50,000, the council proposes closing Shrewsbury art galleries and museums on Sunday and Monday throughout the year.
The council also suggests
- increasing the number of foster carers across the county (estimated £1.375m savings)
- close household recycling centres on certain days (estimated £0.39m savings)
- greater enforcement of car parking tickets, littering fines, and other civil measures (estimated £0.30m income)
- introduce and enforce residential parking permits (estimated £0.1m income)
- review and potentially reduce some leisure provision (estimated £0.35m savings)
- asking other organisations (such as town or parish councils) to take on and run council operated leisure centres. (estimated £0.2m savings)
- Management of green spaces will be passed to town or parish councils, where they choose to take that on (estimated £0.2m savings)
- Asking people self-funding for social care to make a greater contribution (estimated £1m income).
Capital spending
The council is planning to spend a whacking £122 million on capital projects next year. Of this 69.4 million (57%) will be on highways projects. It says most of the this capital investment is funded from government grants and developer contributions. Other schemes can be funded through capital asset sales or borrowing from Government. A separate paper forecasted a shortfall of £59 million in capital funding in 2025/26, to be funded by a sale of assets (£23 million) and “prudential borrowing”. The council has not identified the assets it will sell, but they will include Shirehall. Other funding will come from selling the county’s car parks and leasing them back (an “income strip”).
Taking part
The consultation is open until 26 January 2025. Take part here…
Another Trash and Burn set of proposals from those Conservative councillors who know, having spent every last spare penny, they won’t be in power from next May and so can leave the mess for someone else to take the blame.
It seems quite obvious that any student of maths would chuckle at the financial projections given by our Council “experts”, and maybe a root and branches review of budget by somebody that knows what they are doing may produce a plan that is affordable without the despeeration shown by the current regime.
The auditors need to look into this relief road business urgently, I’m sure there’s a lot to be unearthed and unless it happens soon much will be hidden and no one will be held to account. My money saving suggestion is scrap Shropshire County Council.