Streetlights in Swindon to be dimmed as council plans big cuts

Vital services in Swindon like libraries, community transport like Dial-a-Ride, adult social care, and street lighting will see significant changes, or have funding withdrawn, as Swindon Borough Council desperately tries to save money.

80 council-funded jobs will also go.

A pre-budget report is set to be debated by cabinet members. Speaking ahead of this, Swindon Borough Council leader Councillor Jim Robbins and the member for finance Councillor Kevin Small have painted an alarming picture of the state of the council’s accounts.

Councillor Robbins said: “We still have an in-year spending gap of £6.5 million in this year’s budget, which we have to close by the end of March.

“In next year’s budget, we have already identified £18.8 million in savings, but we still have to find another £14m.

“We had a Local Government Association review of our finances just after we took power – and it said that any easy wins, or low-hanging fruit, has long gone.

“Any savings now will be affecting front-line services.”

That £32m in cuts to services is the largest single saving the council has ever been forced to make and represents 18 percent of the revenue budget – where the council makes its day-to-day spending – which will be £175m in 2024-25.

Cllr Robbins has reassured residents that Swindon won’t go bankrupt, but stressed it’s far from entirely safe.

He said: “We don’t think we’ll be in a position where we need to make a Section 114 declaration this year or next.

“Further out than that it’s impossible to say – but we think we will get through the next two years but that’s without something unexpected happening.”

If approved by the cabinet, the council will wait to see what its grant from the central government will be and how much it is allowed by Whitehall to raise in council tax.

Once the full budget is drawn up in the new year the cabinet and then full council will have to approve it in February.

Cllr Small said: “It will give me no pleasure at all to stand up in those meetings and introduce cuts to services.

“But demand, particularly in adults care and also even more so in children’s services has been rising, and increasing inflation, the rise in fuel costs has also had a huge impact.”

Cllr Robbins said: “If we don’t balance this year’s budget, and set a balanced budget for next year the alternative is government commissioners come in and cut everything that is not a statutory duty.

“We have to be a responsible guardian of the council’s finances.”

Credit: Aled Thomas/Local Democracy Reporting Service