Bridgend Council Approve Final Budget for 2025-26

MEMBERS of Bridgend County Borough Council have approved their final revenue budget for the 2025-26 financial year.

The plans, which were approved at a council meeting on February 26, will see a council tax increase of 4.5% along with a range of other saving measures needed to tackle what officers described as “unprecedented” financial pressures.

The authority’s annual revenue budget covers the day-to-day running costs of the council including staff salaries, building maintenance, pensions, and operational costs.

The approved budget came after a 3.9% increase in Welsh Government funding for Bridgend, with a revenue budget of £383.3m now being taken in to the next financial year.

This includes more than £123m of funding allocated for schools, £115m for social services, £24.8m for services within the chief executive’s directorate, and £33.7m for communities.

A council spokesman added that the budget would also include greater investment into services for vulnerable adults and children, with extra money for road maintenance and pothole repairs and funding for disabled facility grants to support people at home.

It will, however, see a number of saving measures including the ending of the current meals-at-home service, and a review of the local CCTV service – potentially reducing it to night-time or weekend cover only.

It will also result in increased bulky waste charges rising from £30 for three items to £35, along with a 20% increase to fees for bereavement services such as burial charges.

Efficiency savings of 1% will also need to be made against schools delegated budgets which the report said had the potential to result in “some teacher and other staff redundancies” along with cuts of more than 20% to counselling services in schools.

However, plans to cut school music services were removed from the proposals after what was said to have been the biggest public response many in the council had ever seen.

The approval followed discussions around an alternative budget submitted by the Bridgend Independent group, who proposed to maintain the school counselling services as they were and reduce cuts to school budgets to 0.5%- drawing money from reserves and reducing the number of cabinet members that sit on the council.

The move was, however, rejected by vote, after officers said they did not feel the plan would allow them to replenish these reserves that had already been dropping since 2022.

Discussions over the amendments later came to a head when Independent Councillor Ian Williams of Oldcastle asked the leader if all Labour Party members were free to vote as they wished, even if they supported the amendment, without fear of sanctions.

Council leader John Spanswick, of Brackla West Central, responded by saying that he could give a 100% commitment that no person in the Labour administration had been “whipped” on the vote.

The decision to approve the initial budget came after a second vote which saw 27 members vote for the plans and 16 against. Council leader John Spanswick said: “I believe its a fair budget for all services and one that will serve the people of the county borough of Bridgend, along with one of the lowest council tax rises in Wales.”