The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Proposed budget cuts of £42million by Lincolnshire County Council have been eased a little by a promise of £7.7m extra of government funding over the next two years.
The council’s executive met last week, and agreed to an array of savings due to be approved by full council on Friday, February 19.
Total expenditure of £465m would be supported by use of more than £38m of reserves.
Now local government secretary Greg Clark has allotted £300m of “transitional” support for some councils.
The county council’s element of the council tax bill is set to rise by 3.95 per cent (1.95 per cent plus a further two per cent for the social care ‘precept’) – a rise of £42.89 for a Band D property.
The public has been consulted over the budget proposals. As well as a survey online and in the council’s County News publication, six public consultation events were held in towns, with varying degrees of popularity. The one at the South Holland Centre in Spalding had ten councillors and just five members of the public.
One question from the floor was: “Is the Spalding Western Relief Road a waste of £12milllion when the town already has a bypass and possibly all that’s needed is a better town centre traffic management system?”
Council leader Martin Hill said the new road would certainly be needed when the high proportion of planned housing is built.
And on bus subsidies, Coun Hill confirmed that there was no plan to reduce support for CallConnect, the dial-a-bus service which operates Monday to Saturday.
“Indeed, it might have to be expanded,” he added, referring to extra pressure on it if other bus services suffered.
