A draft budget which proposes a freeze on council tax and savings of £18.6million was approved at a meeting of North Somerset Council’s Executive yesterday (Tuesday February 1).

The draft budget will now go to Full Council on February 22 for final approval.

If approved, the average Band D property in North Somerset will pay £1,150.87 for council services, the same as last year. This is the second lowest council tax in the south west, and tax payers in North Somerset pay £65.22 less than the national unitary authority average for a Band D property.

The Executive report sets out the proposed budget for 2011/12 as well as budget intentions up until 2015. It highlights that over the next four years the council will have to save £47.3million.

The outcome of the government settlement means that the council has had to identify a minimum of £17.5million of savings for 2011/12.

The scale of the financial challenge is unprecedented and even greater than when initial draft budget projections were published in December. Central government funding was £4.7million less than the council expected.

The proposals for 2011/12 include savings across all the council’s service areas.

Cllr Nigel Ashton, Leader of the Council, said: “We are facing unprecedented levels of cuts and must play our part, along with every other council, as the country reduces the enormous national debt.

“We have been working hard to prepare for significant savings and are better prepared than many other authorities to face the challenge. This has been achieved through good forward planning and undertaking organisational change, such as outsourcing many of our back-office services, new ways of delivering cultural services and bringing together our office accommodation in two main buildings.

“We cannot expect to achieve this scale of savings without feeling the difference, but we will continue to develop different ways of delivering services wherever possible. We will also continue to fight our corner with central government for fairer funding.

“The council’s policy is to avoid compulsory redundancy whenever possible but, given the scale of the budget reductions we are having to make, some job losses are inevitable,” continued Cllr Ashton.

“We estimate a reduction of around 140 full time equivalent posts during 2011/12. However, due to the proactive actions we have taken including outsourcing some services, the number of staff actually being put at risk of redundancy is likely to be less than 50.

“It is inevitable that the scale of the financial challenge will impact on residents, communities, partner organisations and our own staff. However, the proposed budget is prudent and protects services to our communities as far as it is possible within the limits of the resources made available to us.”

Design by Falkner Brown

Havard Tisdale has informed the council that it can no longer be considered for the redevelopment of the prime seafront site at Weston-super-Mare.

In view of this the council has decided to cancel the public exhibition to be held at the Winter Gardens tomorrow and Saturday when plans from both Havard Tisdale and the other potential developer, the Nightingale Group, were due to go on display.

“We have been working closely with both bidders to ensure their schemes are both deliverable and viable and we are disappointed that Havard Tisdale have concluded that they are unable to achieve a commercially viable scheme,” said Council Leader Cllr Nigel Ashton. “In light of the changing circumstances, we have decided not to proceed with the exhibition at this stage.

“We are still obliged to follow the EU procurement process, but are hopeful this can be concluded sooner now that there is only one bidder involved. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Nightingale Group on their proposals.”

Despite assurances from North Somerset Council that missed recycling and rubbish collections would be done no later than the weekend of the 8th January many Weston residents are still reporting that rubbish and recycling are still piled high almost a month since collections were interrupted due to the heavy snow which disappeared after a week.

One angry resident who wished to remain un-named said “I understand that while the rest of us had to continue working and adapting to conditions caused by the snow, the health and safety obsessed council had a week when it was too dangerous to send their contractors out to collect rubbish, but the snow was only on the ground for a week so why is it that over 3 weeks later the recycling is still sat outside my house?”.

This author is one of the residents that still hasn’t had their rubbish and recycling collection and whilst the snow has brought some inevitable disruption to collections coupled with the extra rubbish created by Christmas, it has now gone well past the point of reasonable for collections to be back to normal.

Do you have piles of rubbish stacked in your street? Do you think that North Somerset has failed their obligations to the local tax-payers? Can the council justify the council tax increase due in March? Leave your comments and let us know what you think.

The start of the commercial development on land off Pastures Avenue in St Georges has seen the first stage completed with the imminent opening of a temporary doctors surgery.

The remaining land at the Ridings which currently has 46 new houses under construction will also see 9 more commercial units, which are set to become Weston’s latest office development and provide much needed office space to attract new business to our town.