Statement from the East Riding Council on the Budget set today

EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE COUNCIL has placed itself in a stronger position than many other local authorities by anticipating and planning carefully for funding reductions before they were announced by the Government in December.

Thanks to this planning, which began in 2009/10, the council has been able to set a budget today which protects essential services and freezes council tax at the same level as the current year.

Councillor Stephen Parnaby, OBE, leader of the council, said: 

The massive funding reductions for the public sector - which come as the Government seeks to cut the national deficit - are having the impact we expected on local government.Our forward planning and early action have helped us to mitigate the effects of grant reductions. This means we can avoid unplanned cuts and knee-jerk reactions even though the East Riding has had a reduction in Government funding of £30m over the next four years. The budget which has been set today protects key services and continues to fund the priorities which have been agreed with our partners and residents.Council tax has been frozen for 2011/12 at the same level as the current year and the council’s popular free parking on Saturdays and Sundays in December has been extended from 1 November to 31 January to further help residents and businesses in these difficult times.

The council approved savings totalling £9.5m, which will be achieved through projects which include improving productivity and reviewing service delivery, looking at the use of council premises, improving procurement of goods and services and reductions in expenditure. There are no proposals within the savings to close any of the council’s leisure centres, libraries or other facilities.

Following a public consultation undertaken earlier in the year which identified highway maintenance, support to vulnerable adults and children as key priority areas, an extra £4.6m is being spent on adult social care to meet the cost of caring for the elderly and people with disabilities and an additional £491,000 has been agreed to protect children at risk and the increasing number of children requiring local authority care.

Additional funding has been made within the budget for highways maintenance and a further £2m has been released from contingency funds to provide additional salt and fast-track repairs to the highway caused by the severe weather experienced in December.

Recognising the importance of transport in a rural area funding for supported bus routes has been maintained .

Following successful working with town and parish council’s to clear the snow in December a total of £200,000 has been allocated through the Local Strategic Partnership for town and parish councils to spend on local communities and projects.