£15m savings – and a 1.9% council tax increase

WARRINGTON Borough Council will need to make savings of £15.5 million  and increase council tax by 1.9 per cent to balance its books in the coming year. This was revealed by Cllr Russ Bowden (pictured), lead member for corporate resources and assignments, at a meeting of the council’s executive board when the recommended budget proposals were adopted. Cllr Bowden said the proposals would support the council’s ambitions for the town and deliver the right results for its people. He described the proposals as “a fundamental shift towards self-sufficiency and a better dialogue and discussion with the people of Warrington about what the council is here to do”. Leader of the council Terry O’Neill added: “We need to be masters of our own destiny and invest in our own success. “Our ambition is to become a self-contained city, retaining our receipts and investing back in our town. We cannot rely on the government to provide financial support now and in the future”. The budget proposals will now be presented to a meeting of the full council in March. Cllr Bowden said: “We have started and will need to continue to have some quite exciting and challenging conversations about the transformation of the council over the next few years. We are talking about more integration with other public bodies so we make the best use of the Warrington pound and have greater self-sufficiency. “The key point is that there is very little funding now within the revenue budget for us to spend and we need be very careful about what we do spend. We will continue to use funding to prime some of our regeneration projects which bring economic and social benefits for the town. “The only head room we have to support us in delivering our ambitions, is the capital programme. This will help us deliver the right results for the town. We want to move the council towards self-sufficiency, therefore developments at Omega and the future development of Bridge Street and the Stadium Quarter are all contributing to the council going forward. “In exploring options for savings, the progress so far is really encouraging despite the really hard place that we are in with even more revenue budget cuts as a result of Government cuts in funding. For 2015/16 we will need to find another £15.5 million savings and recommend a council tax increase of 1.9 per cent. “We have had a better response to our budget consultation than last year. We are starting to get a better dialogue and discussion with residents and others about what the council is here to do. It has been very positive both in terms of the numbers and quality of questions and ideas coming forward”. The council has made savings of more than £30 million over the past two years and estimates needing to make £48.8 million additional savings over the next four years. Cllr O’Neill said: “We are making excellent progress. Some people say that we shouldn’t implement these cuts but we have a responsibility to set a legal budget.” Visit www.warrington.gov.uk/strongwarrington for more information on “Growing a Strong Warrington”