Council tax could increase by five per cent in Newport next year

Newport City Council unveiled its draft budget for 2018-2019 earlier today, including proposed cuts to services totalling £7.4 million.

The five per cent council tax increase would see annual bills for band D properties increase by an average of £62.67 and generate £1.96 million for the council.

Although schools in the city will not see their budgets cut, this represents a real-terms cut.

Proposed cost-saving measures include closing all six public toilets run by the council, saving £20,000 a year. These are in Caerleon Road and Corporation Road, as well as two in Caerleon and two others in Cardiff Road and Chepstow Road which are currently closed due to vandalism.

But the Chepstow Road toilets could be kept open if an agreement to transfer ownership to community group Maindee Unlimited goes ahead.

The council has also proposed scrapping the city's pupil referral unit, which deals with young people with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties, and setting up a dedicated school catering specifically for them, saving £485,000 over two years.

But the new school would have space for only 24 pupils, while the pupil referral unit was used by 185 young people last year alone.

The budget report said: "Schools would need to find their own alternative provision for young people who cannot successfully engage in a mainstream curriculum, for example ‘Aspire programmes’. This will add additional pressures to school and could result in the increase of secondary school exclusion rates."

Another proposal involves introducing parking charges at Belle Vue Park in an effort to deter people from using the car park while visiting the nearby Royal Gwent Hospital or other sites, while also generating income for the council.

According to council documents, once costs are taken into account this would generate between £40,000 and £64,000 a year, and could be introduced at other council-owned sites such as Tredegar Park and Fourteen Locks if it proves a success.

The council report said: “Parking in the parks is free and for many years city centre parks are being used by commuters on a daily basis.

"This prevents bays being used by legitimate visitors to the parks.

“This is particularly problematic in Belle Vue Park, which is adjacent to the Royal Gwent Hospital and other key city employment sites.

“Despite issuing warnings (leaflets on windscreens, notices etc.) this has not discouraged the activity."

“The use of bays by commuters can generate a negative visitor experience and impact on facilities and events within the parks.”

Proposed charges are £1 for two hours, £3 for five hours and £5 for more than five hours.

The budget also proposes decreasing the availability of face-to-face and telephone services, saving £21,300, as part of an effort to encourage as many transactions to be carried out online as possible.

But the budget documents said the plan would have "an impact on call handing and customer wait times" and "services may be negatively impacted".

The council has also proposed combining three teams supporting children and young people with special needs into a single ‘inclusion enrichment team’. This would result in a loss of 6.3 full-time jobs and save the council £267,000 next year and £53,000 the following year.

A statement in the budget documents said: “Less staff overall will result in reduced face to face contact with pupils.

“However the merged team will develop more teacher and teaching assistant training opportunities to ensure that school based staff can support pupils in their own learning environments.”

Council leader Cllr Debbie Wilcox said: "These latest budget proposals show that we continue to put forward responsible and imaginative ways of making savings while trying to protecting essential services and our most vulnerable residents.

"However, this is becoming more and more unachievable as years of austerity and reducing budgets takes its toll.

"We simply have a fraction of the money and staff we once had to be able to deliver everything we would want to as a city."

On the proposed council tax increase she added: "Although a relatively small proportion of our funds come from council tax, we fully appreciate that this is a considerable outgoing for residents.

"Unlike many other UK authorities we are not proposing a large hike, rather seeking to make efficiencies elsewhere.

"Against a backdrop of having to fund £10 million of unavoidable budget pressures, we feel it is fair that only a quarter of that will be found from council tax with the rest coming from savings."

The council has also proposed outsourcing its domiciliary care services, which would save £300,000 over two years. All staff currently working in the service would retain their jobs.

Community care and mental health services in the city will also see budgets cut by £257,000, while short breaks for disabled children and their families will be provided five days a week instead of seven, saving £154,000.

Other proposals include cutting £213,000 from the budget for providing placements for looked-after children and reducing the four schemes looking after adults with learning difficulties to two, involving the loss of two jobs. This would save £40,000 next year and £93,000 the year after.

The council has also proposed closing offices at the city’s cemeteries, saving £23,000.

But the budget also includes new investments worth £5.69 million in services such as independent living, foster care and homelessness.

A public consultation will be launched next week.

The council has made cuts of £41 million over the past five years and has predicted it will have to make another £30 million by 2022.

View the draft budget documents at newport.gov.uk/budget