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Barnsley Council's 2013/14 Budget - The Facts And Figures

Tuesday March 5 2013

What do you think to this year's budget?

LAST Thursday saw Cllr Gardiner deliver the local authority's 2013/14 budget. Here are the need-to-know figures, facts, and an in-depth look at the council's choices.

The Figures

£16.5million - The figure the council had to save.

126 - The number of its staff that are facing compulsory redundancy.

£6.5million - The figure that the hard-hit adult social services has been faced with.

£4.5million - The amount that the council's had to cut from the children's services sector; a figure of £1.7million will be saved as it's no longer running youth clubs.

£2.5million - Development services will have to deal with this hefty cut.

£2.5million - Corporate services will lose this amount.

The Good News

- There's no rise in council tax.

- Libraries and children's centres are not going to close.

- There will be no reduction in highways maintenance, street cleaning or grass cutting for another year.

- No increase in business rates (for the time being).

- The authority will receive an extra £1.5m in its NHS grant from the health service which will help mitigate cuts to adult social care.

The Bad News

- Council won't be running youth clubs.

- Adult and children's services both face severe cuts in funding.

- The OAP warden service will go and the adult services department will be rearranged.

- A figure of £500,000 will be saved through 'back-office' cuts, meaning 126 staff are facing redundancy.

- The borough's two dog warden posts will be reduced to just one and vacant council posts will be deleted, staff redeployed and some will take voluntary severance.

Others

- Council staff are to pay for car parking permits for the first time, costing £17.50 a month, with senior management paying double that.

- Other savings come from the members' mileage scheme being abolished.

What do you think about these figures? Have your say below.

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Reply Posted by me on Tuesday March 5 2013 at 09:16

this is all crap---and like rest of their alleged attempts to do ought---people will be living on streets as they wont be able to afford the bedroom rent--plus rents will be going up--then other bills gone up not enough income for folk to live on--this is only going to increase the crime rates--police darent go up against criminals now--council dont repair their properties--everyhome should be double glazed well maintained if they really need to be asking for money--not making cutbacks--instead they plant flowers what goods that--they facelift private properties which aint their concern thats the landlords--well before it used to be private landlords that ripped tenants off now council are doing same--tenants living in subsided house n nothing done about it-their house that are rent off council are well maintained n repairs done asap--folk ought to live in a crap concil property go to job center as someone with no qualifications try to get a job and live off jsa--plus pay for extra bedroom n bills see how far they get

Reply Posted by lesley on Tuesday March 5 2013 at 09:56

well at least its nice to see some of council privileges being cut.

Reply Posted by CS on Tuesday March 5 2013 at 14:46

Parking charges being brought in and getting rid of some mileage scheme? May as well not bother. A joke made by the council to try to make it look like they're hard done by as well as everyone else. It won't wash. we need to get new councillors in.

Reply Posted by CS on Tuesday March 5 2013 at 14:46

Reply Posted by cs on Tuesday March 5 2013 at 14:47

Forgot to say, especially when they'll claim back through expenses!

Reply Posted by les on Tuesday March 5 2013 at 22:00

I dont know why so many people pull the council down now....barnsley council has never been any good...apart from lining there own pockets ..look at the price to rent a market stall . and now there not big enough to fit a single bed on where are all the shops. If i had one wish for barnsley councillors i would wish for an honest one through history .......

Reply Posted by John on Friday March 8 2013 at 19:18

New councillors may coming up the worse off geting worser like disabled ppl kids no youth clubs 1.7 million where wher the youth clubs Orr there back pockets

Reply Posted by Rebecca on Sunday March 10 2013 at 09:37

This is a bad idea you can't close the youth clubs for disabled people like myself as they help me with my life and give me support through many things and they should carry on!

Reply Posted by Edward Devoy on Sunday June 2 2013 at 21:25

Dundee City charge their tenants on district heating, 5.5 pence per kwh and recover all costs.
Barnsley MBC charge for the same district heating service 9 pence per kwh, and claim that not only are they not making a profit, they are subsidising the district heating by £94'613.
1000 kwh = 1 megawatt hour BMBC claim to be charging £42.08 per megawatt hour. I'm not too good at maths but my calculator says that 9 pence per kwh = £90 per megawatt hour. what does yours say?. Anyone who would like to fight this injustice for themselves or a relative or friend please contact me.
edwarddevoy@hotmail.co.uk please pass on the message to anyone you know suffering this injustice, thanks.

Reply Posted by Shiela on Tuesday July 2 2013 at 10:36

I think the whole of the Barnsley Councils services need to be looked at very carefully. Some of the services that Barnsley Council provide especially to adults and children need a closer review. I work in a school in Barnsley and see many local authority people coming and going and half of them ain't got a clue what there doing. The Wellbieng centres that were put in schools for multi agency workers to use is a complete joke. From what i can gather they are using the touchdown spaces to congragate every morning, have a non relevant chat about what they did the night before, sipping cups of tea and coffeee trying to look busy. Public money going to total waste. It needs a complete review get rid of all the shit and employ people who do a good job. Half of the social service staff would be laid off or made redundant for me, far too long have they plodded on doing an injustice service to our familys in the Barnsley area. Half of them are just waiting for their redundo and can't wait to get out anyway.

Reply Posted by Charles on Tuesday July 2 2013 at 11:30

While I fully agree with the sentiments of your post Sheila, I have to say that despite you claiming to work at a local school, your spelling and grammar need a little attention.

Low standards in local schools?

Reply Posted by anon on Friday January 31 2014 at 21:42

That because there a bunch of Muppets bout time they step down and let someone take charge who cares about making real changes to this town. There's a lot of people fiddling money within the council its obvious, the odd few that we have seen in news over the years are just the ones who got court!!! You will see.....

Reply Posted by AlanB on Friday January 31 2014 at 23:00

It costs us about £200,000 per annum to employ a Chief Executive. She's been there about twelve months or so and I've never heard anything from her. What does she do? Has she relocated to live in the borough? Do we need her?

Reply Posted by Mangalath on Tuesday December 22 2015 at 17:02

How much water your neighbor prttey much based off of two things, both of which depend on the other. One of these being their daily activities and the bare essential requirements they have for water, and the other being the price of water. The lower the price of water, the higher the demand of it. So, technically if your neighbor only needs an average amount of water, and the price is low, than that person will use as much water as they want and not worry because the cost is lower. However, if the price is higher, than this person will be more aware of how much water they are wasting and adjust their needs to fit the lower demand they have for water. The answer is not the same if I am paying for the neighbor's water bill because for two reasons. One is that if I am paying, then price is no longer an issue for the neighbor. Their demand for water will increase as price decreases, as the law of demand states. However, if I am paying for it, I would make sure that they are not exceeding a reasonable amount of water because since my price has increased, my demand has decreased and I won't be using an excessive amount of water or be willing to pay for such an excessive amount, but the neighbor's amount of water that they need will be much greater than when they had to pay for it.