Bristol City Council approves annual budget and 4.99 per cent council tax hike

Green-led Bristol City Council has agreed its annual budget, with four changes suggested by other parties and a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax. It comprises a total of £1.7bn in spending across day-to-day services, schools, council housing, the harbour estate, public health, and major investments called capital projects.

Both Lib Dem amendments – to carry out a study into the possibility of introducing a tourist tax, called a visitor charge, on hotel guests, and making it easier for residents to donate to community organisations, were both approved. Two of Labour ’s 11 proposed changes to the budget were also passed, both with the casting vote of full council chairman and lord mayor Cllr Andrew Varney (Lib Dem, Brislington West), following a tie on 34 votes for and against.

These were to cap a proposed 15 per cent hike in the cost of meals on wheels to 4.5 per cent and reducing cuts in funding to community groups, and installing five new fly-tipping enforcement cameras, increasing littering fines from £150 to £250 and graffiti removal. But Labour’s other amendments, including spending £1m to reopen public toilets that it shut under then-mayor Marvin Rees in 2018, were voted down, although the Greens announced they were committed to investing in on-street lavatories.

The Conservatives’ amendment, to reinstate £3.4m cuts in the Council Tax Reduction Scheme for the poorest households and put the money into keeping district car parks free of charge, reducing bulky waste fees, bolstering the authority’s neighbourhood enforcement and planning teams, installing bleed kits and £1million of road improvements, was rejected by all other groups in the chamber. The CTRS cuts were one of several controversial measures in the original Green-led administration’s draft budget that were shelved over the last few weeks in the build-up to the annual budget meeting.

These included axing funding for lollipop ladies, cutting money for libraries and mothballing three museums. City council leader Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) told the five-and-a-quarter-hour meeting: “We’re committing £70m of investment across directorates to address growing demand, future-proof services and meet new and emerging challenges head on.”

He said a cost-cutting transformation programme of ‘efficiencies’ would save the authority £79m a year from 2030. Cllr Dyer said: “But we must also invest in the fabric and mechanics of our city.

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“Alongside our internal investment we also propose to spend over £400m in areas such as parks and green spaces, delivering new council housing, repairing aging highways infrastructure, bringing new transport options online and introducing new homes for children in care. Thirty English councils are working with the government to leverage borrowing of around £1.5bn to stave off bankruptcy.

“Those councils that are reliant on this exceptional financial support to stave off financial disaster will now find themselves laden with high levels of debt – debt that in many cases will only be paid off by fire-sales of council assets. We were left in a difficult position, but I am proud that we have not needed to enter into such a relationship with the government, which would only damage Bristol’s long-term financial sustainability.

“We owe it to our residents and businesses to ensure we spend their money wisely and well.” Labour group leader Cllr Tom Renhard (Horfield) said the Greens had removed some of the worst ideas from the original proposals.

But he said: “Even though you’ve been bailed out of doing most of the unpalatable things, this is still a bad budget, devoid of political direction.” Cllr Renhard there would still be cuts to domestic abuse services, the archives and waste collections.

He said: “None of these are financial necessities – they’re political decisions that are entirely avoidable. It is a shame that Green Party councillors chose to try and block all of our proposals – not exactly the new way of doing politics that was promised to be over the hill in the sunlit uplands.”

Cllr Sarah Classick (Lib Dem, Hengrove & Whitchurch Park) said her group would support the budget as amended and that although it was not perfect, it took a pragmatic approach to improving essential services. Conservative group leader Cllr Mark Weston said his party was seriously worried about changes to transport, libraries and waste services, with an ongoing public consultation into reducing black bin collections to every three or four weeks, and that Labour was producing more spin than the movie Twisters.

Green group leader Cllr Emma Edwards (Bishopston & Ashley Down) said afterwards: “I am disappointed that Labour continue to refuse to take part in the committee system and instead have made a mockery of this budget process with amendments of mismatched ideas, which don’t add up, or haven’t been thought through or scrutinised. Rather than take part in cross-party decision making, they have chosen a role of obstructive, attention-grabbing opposition and I am disappointed that they are more interested in grabbing headlines than working together for the people of Bristol.

“But while we have set this budget, the work does not stop here. By working together, we will achieve more for the city, we will work better and garner more trust and confidence from those who elected us, regardless of political party.

“By doing this, we will focus on the job at hand, put the petty politicking, the petitions and headline chasing aside, and instead focus on what is best for the people of Bristol.” Two of Labour’s proposals, to reduce the cost of meals on wheels to 4.5 per cent and to tackle fly-tipping, were both backed by the Lib Dems and the Conservatives but opposed by the Greens, meaning the lord mayor had to break the tied votes.

The Lib Dem amendment to carry out a feasibility study into a visitor charge was approved by 59-6 votes, with the Tories, who feared it could deter tourists from coming to Bristol, voting against. The group’s request to set up a donation fund for community organisations was passed unanimously.

Councillors voted in favour of the amended budget by 62-6, with the Conservatives against.