Mayor asks Bristol how to spend ?3.9m

George Ferguson has asked for the public’s views on how to spend £3.9million Bristol City Council has raised through a crackdown on single person council tax discounts.

A consultation into the mayor’s budget for 2015/16 begins today, with the vast majority of spending and saving decisions having already been made last year.

This time in 2013, the public responded in their thousands to a three-year budget programme put forward by the mayor, which aimed to cut more than £80m council spending.

Despite controversy over a number of proposals, including the decision to raise council tax by 1.95 per cent, the budget was passed by councillors in February and is in force until 2016/17.

Some £3.9m has been raised by the council tax discount review, and Ferguson has put forward a number of suggestions for how that money can be raised.

These are:

• Mayoral Commissions – £1.6m
  During 2014, four independent commissions on fairness, education and skills, housing and sport made a series of recommendations, which the cash will be used to put into practice.
• Libraries consultation – £1m
  The council has just launched a consultation on the future of the city’s library service. The cash will be used by the council to “invest in the ideas that come from it”.
• European Green Capital Legacy – £0.5m
  A £500,000 grant programme for “legacy projects” across the city. Suggestions as to how this might be invested are called for.
• Closer joint working across the city region – £0.3m
  Funding would “support opportunities to join up more council services across the wider Bristol and Bath city region, helping make more joined-up decisions across borders to ensure better value, take advantage of national funding opportunities and to make the most of local services”.
• Supporting better rail links for the city – £0.3m
  A £300,000 fund for a feasibility study/business case for development of local rail, including the Henbury Loop.
• Bristol 800 Celebrations – £0.1m
  2016 marks the 800th anniversary of the first mayor of Bristol and 250 years of the Bristol Old Vic. The cash is proposed to celebrate the anniversary over 50 weekends which will take place in all Bristol’s communities.
• Feasibility study for development of Colston Hall – £0.1m
  Cash to support the Colston Hall Trust, by funding a feasibility study into the restoration and further development of the hall, plus examining the ability to secure third party external funding.

The mayor says no final decision has been taken, but says in the introduction to the consultation document: ” I would like your own suggestions as to where the priorities might lie, apart from the £1.6m allocated to the commission outcomes, as it is vital that they are properly funded.”

Meanwhile, residents are told that the money is a one-off and cannot be used to fund day-to-day services in the long term.

Ferguson said the council had succeeded in making “the vast majority of savings without impacting on front line services” during the last year.

“We must do things differently, and by focusing on efficiency and joining up services we’ve saved huge amounts, including around £35m from our annual operating budget so far,” he added.

“This year we’re in the happier position of having some one-off flexibility in the budget. It will make a pleasant change to ask people what they’d like to spend money on, rather than being restricted to discussion about the ways we need to reduce spending. We maintain our longer-term plan on which we consulted in great depth last year.”

People can take part in the consultation by visiting www.bristol.gov.uk/budget. Paper copies are available in local libraries and Citizen Service Points across the city. They can also be requested by post by contacting 0117 922 2848.

The consultation closes on December 29. The mayor will present his final draft budget at cabinet on January 13, which will then be considered by full council on February 17. Approval of the budget requires the majority vote of full council.