Bristol city councillors will vote on Labour mayor Marvin Rees’s annual budget on Tuesday afternoon (February 21). A meeting of full council at City Hall will decide the fate of proposed cuts and savings totalling £16.2million in the 12 months from April to balance the authority’s books, including a big increase in garden waste subscription fees, new pay-and-display parking and a 4.99 per cent council tax rise.
Each year the opposition groups suggest their own changes to the budget, called amendments, which will also be voted on in turn. Like the overall revenue spending plans for day-to-day services, which run up to £483.5million for 2023/24, any investments in schemes or the scrapping of new or increased charges have to pay themselves by taking funding from elsewhere in the council’s coffers.
The Greens, Conservatives, Lib Dems and Knowle Community Party have each set out what they would do with your money. Here are the suggestions from Knowle Community Party.
Read more: Man loves Bristol's Jubilee Pool so much he swam 780 lengths there in a day
The group, comprising two former Lib Dem councillors, has focused its proposals on Jubilee Pool and parks and open spaces in Knowle and Windmill Hill. Cllr Gary Hopkins firstly wants the council to give a £110,000 loan to the swimming pool, which was taken over from the council by the community in an asset transfer last September, which would be invested in much-needed energy efficiency.
His amendment said the leisure centre had obtained £50,000 for an essential new “air management” unit but needed the additional money to have it installed, and would forfeit the grant if this was not done by July. It said: “There is a very good chance that the money for this can be obtained from capital grants from a variety of charitable organisations but, if not, money will need to be borrowed.
“We wish the council to make available a fund of £110,000 for this specific purpose.” A finance officer’s assessment in the report to full council said: “These costs have not been identified through a specific energy efficiency review undertaken by the council, however, a condition survey for Jubilee Pool does identify the cost of priority repair works being in the region of £280,000.
“Any loan provided would need to go through appropriate due diligence and any interest charged be in line with the council's approved capital strategy and reflect the risk of offering the loan, current market conditions for interest rates and demonstrate how the investments are returned by the end of the period.” An equalities impact assessment said the additional funding would support equality groups to continue to benefit from having a leisure facility nearby.
It said: “The pool serves low-income households who would be less likely to afford increased costs if shifted to customers.” Cllr Hopkins suggests the loan would come from £110,000 of the council’s proposed 10-year £62.4million “corporate contingencies” to cover risks associated with its overall spending plans, which could reduce to just £15.9million if “all known pressures materialise”.
That pot of money is there for any urgent schemes and to ensure funds are available for cost overruns. The report said: “Any reduction to contingency funding may restrict the council's capacity to respond to emerging accessibility requirements or other issues which are likely to disproportionately impact equalities communities.”
Another Cllr Hopkins amendment would provide a £100,000 grant to the pool over two years from the public health reserve. The finance officer’s assessment said: “Jubilee Pool asset transfer has been made on the basis of no further funding from the council and that a budget allocation from public health would be counter to this position.
“An allocation from the public health budget on request as a direct award (ie, without any element of competition) is outside the usual open and transparent process that public health use for making grants. That said, a budget allocation of £50,000 each year for a maximum of two years, totalling £100,000, could be made available to support an increase in inclusive physical activity which addresses inequalities of access through Jubilee Pool, gym and related activities.
“There are many worthy organisations and activities in the city and with limited resources, care needs to be taken to ensure that the distribution of public resources is fair, appropriate and value for money. For this reason, if the proposal is passed, this should not be seen as a precedent for consideration of awards of funding from the public health grant outside of a competitive process.
“Additional public health funding may contribute to promoting healthy lifestyles for equalities communities in South Bristol where there are existing disparities.” Cllr Hopkins also wants to earmark £57,000 from the sale of Salcombe Road Recreation Ground in 2016 to parks and open spaces in Knowle and Windmill Hill wards.
The finance officer’s assessment said the administration’s budget proposed a £1million cut to parks capital funding, so the parks service had to target spending on “high priority works to parks infrastructure”. It said the amendment could impact the service’s programme of high priorities.
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