​£17m budget pledge to address the Climate Emergency

Bury Council has announced an ambitious multi-million pound set of proposals to help address the Climate Emergency.

The Climate Emergency, which the council declared last summer, committed Bury to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Under plans passed at last night’s (Wed 26 Feb) budget council meeting, the council will allocate significant funds for a range of measures aimed at reducing the council’s and the borough’s carbon emissions, improving air quality and empowering the community to take action themselves.

The main proposals are:

• £500,000 to fund a 2-year tree planting programme, to enable the planting of 5,000 semi-mature trees and 10,000 tree whips across the borough.
• £600,000 to create a Community Climate Capital Fund. This will provide local community groups the much-needed one off funding for projects linked with carbon neutrality, renewable energy and biodiversity.
• £240,000 to support the new “Green Township Forums” that were proposed in the Climate Emergency motion. These forums will provide the space, and now the resource, for residents, elected members, community groups, schools and businesses to work together on local green initiatives. The council will also fund a “Citizens Assembly” on Climate Change.
• A £5.5 million investment in an LED streetlight rollout. Not only will this save the council money on energy costs, it will contribute to reducing the council’s carbon footprint even further than they already have, down by over 40% in the last 10 years.
• £10 million on replacing the council’s fleet of vehicles with clean air compliant technology.
• An additional £200,000 for a Climate Change Resilience Fund to combat local flooding issues.

Other plans include funding for more electric vehicle charging points; a new electric vehicle trial programme aimed at local businesses; money to buy a glyphosate alternative in tackling weeds; and dedicated staff to boost cycling and walking and green spaces.

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, cabinet member for finance and housing, said: “This is the single biggest investment the council has made in protecting and promoting our environment. It is absolutely necessary that we take this action now; the Climate Emergency means we cannot wait any longer.

“More still needs to be done, and we hope to use our Citizens Assembly to help draw this out, but we want to send a very clear message that we are prepared to act.

“A lot of this money will be spent on proposals where we work in partnership with environmentally focused organisations, our residents and the wider community. In an emergency, we are far better all working together.”

Cllr O’Brien said that ten years of austerity had cut the council’s budget by £102 million since 2010, while Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was facing a £40 million funding gap in the coming years.

“This has left some of our poorest residents facing increasingly difficult circumstances,” he said. “We’re going to invest in the following options to protect the most vulnerable members of our society from continued austerity:

• £100,000 to create a new Care Leaver Fund, helping to remove the range of barriers that many of these young people face in their daily lives.
• £100,000 to help raise awareness of the health impacts of loneliness and fund projects to combat it.
• £150,000 to expand the reach of the borough’s children and community centres.
• £50,000 to run a trial aimed at helping those in areas of highest deprivation who are struggling to manage with benefit reforms and often do not claim their benefit entitlements.

Extra money has also been announced for ongoing regeneration projects and other priorities.

• A further £170,000 for a 3G football pitch in Radcliffe and improved changing facilities, taking the total to £400,000.
• An additional £300,000, on top of an already committed £200,000, to help fund the Radcliffe Strategic Regeneration Framework.
• £200,000 on more measures to tackle fly-tipping hotspots and litter and enforcement.
• £670,000 to promote the council’s Physical Activity Strategy, including improving the borough’s outdoor facilities, parks and green spaces.
• Further funding for a Ramsbottom Town Plan – taking the total to £500,000, to address key issues in the town.
• £120,000 extra to support the “Town of Culture” year that Bury was awarded at the beginning of 2020. This new funding will focus on creating a longer-term legacy of the year in every part of the borough.
• Two new posts will be created to address housing issues: one to help further reduce the amount of empty properties in the borough and one to create an “ethical lettings agency” in collaboration with Six Town Housing.

Council also agreed that people who volunteer as Special Constables in Bury will have a 50% reduction in their Council Tax bills.

Council leader David Jones, himself a former police inspector, said: “Where better than Bury – home of Robert Peel, the founder of the modern-day police service – to do this? Our Special Constables are a vital part of the police service in Bury and across the country, and they do it for no pay. This is why we want to show our gratitude and offer them this token of our appreciation.”

Cllr Jones said this was a budget which would have long-lasting effects, and have the Bury 2030 vision at its heart. This aims to reduce deprivation and improve life chances for all Bury’s residents, through inclusive economic growth which benefits everyone.

“We will develop a different relationship with our residents,” he said, “as we want Bury to be a place which is led by our communities, giving people much greater control of their lives, in a borough that is well developed economically and prioritises sustainability.

“This budget achieves a balance between investment in services and making savings, and reminds us of the need to make significant changes to deliver quality services now and in the future and by offering value for money for our citizens.”

Other budget key points:

• The council voted to increase the council tax by 1.94% for general services, plus 2% in adult social care precept. Note: all of this increase will be spent on funding social care for children and adults.
• Levies added by the Greater Manchester Mayor, police and fire services take the total bill increase to 4.66%. More than half of the 84,000 houses in Bury fall into the bottom two bands (A and B), so the increase for them equates to £1.09 a week for a Band A house and £1.27 for a Band B house.
• Council house rents will increase by 2.7%, following four successive years of 1% rent reductions. Money raised from this can only be spent on social housing.

• There will be budget cuts of £5 million, but this will be found through greater efficiencies rather than cuts to frontline services.

• An extra £10 million will be put into the council’s reserves, given the ongoing financial uncertainty around council funding in the coming years.

ENDS

Press release issued: 27 February 2020.