THE re-introduction of a free bus travel scheme for under 18s has been hailed as a huge step in the right direction by Barnsley Council’s leader after the town secured its best local government budget allocation in a ‘very long time’.
Sir Steve Houghton announced the move to the Chronicle yesterday, which will see the ‘MI Card’ scheme - ditched in 2017 - make its way back thanks to a £5m, two-year package.
As well as the free bus travel scheme, the biggest highways improvement scheme for years is also among the highlights from the latest proposals.
He told the Chronicle: “We used to do it years ago and we’d like to reinstate that.
“Oliver Coppard (South Yorkshire Mayor) is interested in piloting it in Barnsley for the next couple of years so we are looking to do that.
“It’s hoped that will start in August.
“I think it’s great news for families.
“If you have two children then you’re saving £1,000 a year as a low-income family which will make a huge difference.
“For the last 15 years it’s been austerity for local government.
“It’s been about reducing services, making savings and cuts.
“What has become clear is that the national financial position is not great so there wasn’t going to be any easy solutions.
“However we have been lobbying ministers for the last six months to say that local government can’t carry on like this.
“Next year is the key year in many ways but we now know what we are going to get for the next three years.
“I’m pleased to say that this year they have introduced something called the Recovery Grant and the most deprived areas have received some extra money which we didn’t anticipate - for Barnsley that’s £8m.”
Sir Steve said that the extra money allows the council to balance their books, make no cuts to services and subsequently no job losses, and key services will be maintained going forward.
The council currently has a total of £219m in its reserves - though £176m of that has already been allocated for forthcoming schemes such as the Alhambra Centre and The Seam.
Of the £43m of unallocated reserves, £38m of that will be used to back up the budget as a contingency.
That included a total of £34m on adult and children care and waste services just to remain stagnant and going at the current level.
As well as that, £1.5m will be put into neighbourhood services over the next year which includes sweeping roads and three new response teams to support general maintenance and cleaning across the borough.
A further £1.5m will be spent on the council’s Great Childhood Ambition scheme which will allow for more opportunity for secondary school pupils to get experience in work, while £2m is also being proposed to recognise ‘blight’ within the borough - linked to the neighbourhood services.
While £16m will be spent on the highways programme over the next year - the biggest scheme of its kind in recent year.
Sir Steve added: “We’ve got £12m for a borough-wide road maintenance programme.
“The government have given us an extra £2m and we as a council are gong to put an extra £2m in.
“So we are going to have the biggest highways maintenance programme we’ve had for a very long time.
“We’ll be looking in areas to see if we can do some of the smaller estate roads.”
A proposed council tax increase of 4.9 per cent has also been put forward - but Sir Steve says it’s much less than a proposed 15 per cent rise in nearby Bradford.
For those in a band A property this would lead to an increase of £1.37 a week, band B properties will see a raise of £1.59 and for those in band D the rise is £2.05.
“It’s the best position we’ve been in for quite a while,” he added.
“Maintaining services, improving front-line services, doing the bus fares, helping the kids.
“It means we have some money to pilot investment in key areas, such as our young people and into our communities, making a positive impact on their day-to-day lives.( “It won’t solve all the challenges we’re facing, and to balance the books, we still need to make difficult choices and deliver the savings we’re committed to.”
Budget breakdown
£34.1m demographic and other cost pressures in 25/26
Pay and inflation (£8.7m)
Children’s social care (children in care/practice improvement) (£4.8m)
Adult social care (provider fees/practice improvement) (£10.2m)
Social care demography (£2.7m)
Home-to-school transport (£0.9m)
Waste and fleet services (£3.7m)
Homelessness and temporary accommodation (£0.6m)
Investment in core services (£2.5m)
£16m increased income through local government financial settlement( Increase in general social care grant (£5.4m)
Recovery grant (one-off, pending settlement review) (£7.9m)
National Insurance funding (£1.9m)
Core funding inflation (£0.9m)
