27 February 2025

Lib Dem councillors have highlighted protection of the most vulnerable and investment in manifesto priorities as key features of a careful and balanced 2025-2026 Council budget, adopted at B&NES Council yesterday evening.

Cabinet member for Resources, Cllr Mark Elliott

The Council’s care responsibilities towards children and adults were an important theme of debate, with councillors pointing to the “broken market of providers of social care” as a major contributor to financial issues facing the local government sector. Additional funding of £6.5m nett for social care was approved, on top of previous years’ very significant increases.

However, Councillors also welcomed funding for improvements across a range of other areas, including net zero commitments, transport and highways improvements, keeping streets cleaner, greener and safer, affordable housing, and a new customer contact system – all representing Lib Dem manifesto priorities.

Cabinet member for Resources, Councillor Mark Elliott, commented:

“The story today is of a prudent, careful, balanced budget, which protects the most vulnerable in our communities and tries to mitigate against the huge unpredictability and uncertainty we face, but at the same time manages, despite the prevailing uncertainty, to make some important moves in meeting our manifesto commitments.

“Pressures from social care costs are very significant and unpredictable. However, I’m proud of the fact that this administration cares deeply about social care and will make sure the funding is in place to meet the needs of adults and children who desperately need support.

“Despite these challenges, we have managed to carve out some funding for priorities we set in our manifesto back in 2023, such as ‘clean and green’ funding to tackle weeds, graffiti and litter and improving road safety with speed indicator signage and school street schemes.”

Cabinet member for Children’s Services, Councillor Paul May, added:

“We know that any child who comes in to care will be affected throughout their life, no matter how well we look after them. They are among the most vulnerable people within B&NES, so I’m proud this budget ensures funding for vital care services.”

Cabinet member for Adult Services, Councillor Alison Born, commented:

“The additional funding in this year’s budget ensures that we can provide the right support for people with higher levels of need and that we can continue to fund lighter touch, preventative services for many more of our residents, enabling them to stay independent for longer.”

Councillors welcomed key budget proposals which will benefit residents and communities across the whole council area, including:

• Adding two new teams to our “Clean and Green” initiative – giving the council more capability to tackle weeds, graffiti and litter.
• Enabling a pipeline of renewable energy projects, including decarbonisation of the council’s own buildings and stopping using gas as a heating fuel.
• Three new school street schemes – making it easier and safer for children to walk to school.
• Funding to introduce a car club scheme in North East Somerset.
• New road signs which display vehicle speeds – an extra tool to tackle speeding.
• Funding for building new pedestrian crossings and resurfacing pavements –on top of the very significant budget already in place for road resurfacing and pothole fixing.
• A trial of evening bus services for Bath’s park and ride sites – aimed at supporting the evening economy and people working in pubs, restaurants and venues.
• Funding for strategic sustainable transport schemes including cycling and walking routes.

The budget was adopted by 36 votes in favour to 8 against and 7 abstentions.

See Also

• The recording of the budget meeting is available on YouTube.
• The budget report is available on the Council website.