Investment into town centres, delivering leisure centre improvements, supporting communities, tackling homelessness and much more is on the agenda for the council as they map out budget proposals.
Residents are being asked for their views on the budget proposals ahead of a full council meeting in March where the final budget will be approved.
In what is a challenging time for local authorities, the council is proposing a balanced budget which allows for vital day to day services and innovative projects to continue.
To achieve this the council is proposing an increase in their portion of council tax of 2.99%, which is the equivalent of 13p more a week for a Band D property.
Across the year the increase paid to the council for a Band D property would be just £6.76 which will allow for the continued delivery of excellent services.
Councillor Jacky Alty, Leader of South Ribble Borough Council said, "We receive around 10% of a person’s total council tax bill. This is used to pay for vital services such as street cleansing, bin collection and recycling, planning and development, housing and community services, environmental and regulatory services, and health and leisure.
“We also use this to fund our urgent and emergency response services such as clearing fly tipping or fixing damaged playground equipment.
“It's important that we consider our financial position when pulling together the budget and unlike many other local authorities across the country, we are in a relatively strong financial position. This is due in part to our investment projects, revenue streams and our considered approach to spend. We have also continued to look at ways to become efficient, while responding to changing community demand.
"However, we are not immune to economic challenges, and we have faced increases in inflation over recent years that have driven up our costs, whilst also increasing demand for our services.
"Funding to the council has not increased in line with inflation, placing additional pressure on our services. Despite this, our portion of council tax still comes in at one of the lowest in Lancashire.”
The range of investment proposed in the new budget alongside continuation of the vital day-to-day services provided by the council sees:
- £3.6 million to deliver leisure centre refurbishments to enhance local facilities for residents.
- £173,000 to refresh the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy to prevent homelessness.
- £15.3 million to complete and launch the Jubilee Gardens extra care scheme, with 75 supported apartments and facilities for residents.
- £173,000 to progress the delivery of the Central Lancashire Local Plan to ensure sustainable development and investment opportunities that meet local needs now and in the future.
- £1.27 million to create the infrastructure for weekly food waste collections
- £2 million to improve the areas of Middleforth, and Kingsfold and Liverpool Road, in line with the Penwortham Masterplan.
- £38 million to deliver phase two of the Leyland Town Deal
- £30,000 to deliver a Cultural Strategy to determine our arts, heritage, culture and events offer to help bring communities together and promote South Ribble as a visitor destination.
Councillor Alty continued, "We have always been a council with big ambitions with our aim to deliver the absolute best for our residents. I am in no doubt that our plans for the year ahead as set out in the budget will allow us to drive the borough forward while supporting everyone in our communities to thrive.
"Alongside our day-to-day services, over the last year we have supported our communities to live healthy and happy lives by delivering health and wellbeing programmes, supporting people through the cost of living and developing our flagship Family Wellbeing centre.
“We have created a wealth of opportunities in the borough through our economic strategy which includes support to businesses, driving forward key town centre developments and supporting jobs and skills development to help people into work.
“We’ve enhanced the environment, reducing our carbon footprint and worked to continue to be an exemplary council, being innovative and efficient in our approach to get value for money.
"This year we will continue to drive forward projects and initiatives which will really make a difference."
The budget consultation responses will be collected until 30 January and collated and considered as part of the full council meeting in March.
The closing date is 30 January and paper copies are available by request from council offices.