The decision-making executive has agreed changes to the council’s 2024 to 2025 budget based on residents’ feedback and recommended it for approval.
Following a consultation where residents, businesses and town and parish councils gave their thoughts, several changes have been made to the council’s proposed budget for next year.
More than 330 people responded to the 6-week consultation with strong feelings expressed about a small number of proposals, including the removal of the home library service. Therefore, the executive has made the following changes to overall budget plans:
- not to go ahead with the reduction of public waste bins - they were proposed to be reduced down to 500 from 900
- not to go ahead with the suggested reduction in grass verge cutting
- to take more time to review the home library service, running it as usual over the next year with the council looking at alternative ways to fund it in future years, including using volunteers and charities
Residents were supportive of other big proposals, including:
- investing £5 million in local roads over the next 4 years to provide a better surface, reduce potholes and reduce spending in the longer term
- investing in leisure services, including essential maintenance of the pools at Coral Reef Waterworld and Bracknell Leisure Centre and repairing equipment at Downshire Golf Course at a combined cost of £576,000
- investing £300,000 in specific suicide prevention measures in multi-storey car parks
They also agreed with maintaining the current level of spending on social care services, to support the most vulnerable people in our community. Residents were supportive of the council continuing to offer council tax reductions to the lowest income households too and discounts of £75 are outlined in the budget.
The executive agreed that additional grant funding received in the final Local Government Finance Settlement (which was only announced on 5 February) should be allocated to social care and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services. This means a further £754,000 will be spent on social care and £278,000 will be spent on SEND without any impact on the overall budget.
The executive also agreed the level of council tax being recommended to full council, which is 4.99%. This works out as an increase of £1.47 per week for a band D property.
The refined budget was agreed at the executive on 6 February. It will now go on to full council for approval on 21 February.
About the budget
The council’s budget is split in two - revenue budget and capital budget.
The revenue budget covers day-to-day spending. It is mainly financed by council tax, government grants and some business rates. Schools are funded by a specific government grant.
The capital budget is focussed on council ‘assets’. This includes buildings, land, and roads. It is financed from the sale of assets, government grants, money that developers have to pay us and borrowing.
Below are some figures on how the council typically spends its budget on essential and frontline services, as well as services that are important to local residents.
Adult social care
More than £43 million was spent on supporting adult social care in 2022to 2023, including:
- £17 million on learning disability support
- £14.5 million on mental health support
- £11.5 million on adult community team services
Children’s social care
The council supports more than 140 children and young people through its children looked after service.
Forestcare
Forestcare (the council’s out-of-hours service) in 2022 to 2023:
- handled 40,836 calls to provide support
- attended 322 residents and buildings
- handled 5,062 out-of-hours repair calls
Waste and recycling
The council processes and disposes of 47,000 tonnes of waste, including the collection of 33,430 tonnes of waste from 53,536 households annually.
Housing
Since April 2023 the council has:
- spent £533,000 on 52 home adaptations, including stair lifts and ramped access to homes, with 33 more approved
- provided temporary accommodation to 109 households and helped over 130 households to move on from temporary accommodation
- worked with 25 rough sleepers and continuing to provide them with essential support
Highways
The council is responsible for maintaining:
- 460km of roads
- 534km of footpaths and cycleways
- 93 highway structures such as bridges
- 21,598 drainage gullies and hundreds of culverts
- 4,138 streetlights
- 40 traffic signal junctions
Parks and countryside
The council manages 84 sites for nature and recreation, including:
- 14 suitable alternative natural greenspaces
- 31 playgrounds
- 4 recreation grounds and sports facilities
- 2 heritage parks
- habitats such as meadows, orchards, ponds/lakes and woodlands
- The Look Out Discovery Centre
Since November 2021, the council has planted 7,634 trees across the borough.
