Report on County Council Matters to North Nibley Parish Council

4^th March 2019

County Council Budget for 2019/2020

The County Council met to set its budget on 13^th February.

Amendments proposed by the Lib Dem group resulted in a total increased investment of £649k:

- an attempt to cancel a proposed 20% increase in residents’ parking permits was lost, but a bid for £372k from the current surplus in this parking revenue to be used on County subsidised bus routes led to £150k being agreed.

- a proposal to increase Highways Local funding to £30k per councillor (as has existed in the past) was partly agreed, so each councillor will now be allocated £25k.

- removal of the intention of the political administration to cut 1.2% (£134k) to “services for people with physical disabilities” was agreed.

- £50k for funding suicide prevention training was agreed, as was £50k for sexual health testing.

- bids to reverse the mid-week closing of household recycling centres (£43k) and to extend summer opening hours from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. (£84k) to enable residents to use them after getting home from work were lost. I have had reports of long queues on occasions. Please let me know of any instances of this.

Agreed Labour amendments (£140k) were:

- £10k per district for youth work to be administered via county councillors in each district.

(Just £1k per councillor across the Stroud district, if evenly spread. I fear this will mean quite a lot of debate between councillors on how this small sum should be spent and presumably overheads from officer administration since councillors are not permitted to hold money). - £50k per year for two years to run a Holiday Hunger scheme to support pupils who get free school meals during term time.

- £30k to map all cycleways in the county.

- £50k for the Gloucestershire Credit Union to add to the care leavers’ package on their 18^th birthday against an initial Labour bid for £200k.

Proposed Green Party amendments were not agreed by the administration. These included £1M for segregated cycle route infrastructure. They also wanted to change the Corporate Strategy to bring about a moratorium on road construction or expansion where there was not a net positive impact on air quality and carbon reduction. (Given the considerable housing development taking place in the county this could not be achieved on the new roads serving them.)

A bid to recruit a “public engagement officer” with responsibilities for improving the public’s experience of engaging with council meetings and consultations was withdrawn, but with the offer of a scrutiny committee task group to be set up to consider the issue.

The agreed budget with the amendments above had an unchanged impact on the proposed precept so that the County’s call on Band D council taxpayers in 2019/20 will be £1,293.70 compared to £1,232.21 in 2018/19 – an increase of £61.49 per annum. The vote was 30 in favour, 2 against and 18 abstentions.

New Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock started working for Gloucestershire County Council full time on 25^th February.

John Cordwell

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