No new year optimism at struggling council

The council is a "poisoned chalice".

This term, from Shakespeare's Macbeth, has been uttered to me by several councillors in recent months as local elections loom at cash-strapped Shropshire Council.

"Every party will give you the impression they want to run it, but life will certainly be easier in opposition," is how one member of the council put it.

Campaigning ahead of local elections on 1 May 2025 will get underway in earnest after the festive period, amidst a funding crisis that will dominate the next administration.

It has been a particularly difficult year for the ruling Conservative group, which has presided over the local authority's biggest ever savings target.

The task of finding about £90m of savings this financial year almost crippled the council.

Not only did it have to fill a £62.5m funding gap for 2024-25, it also had £20m of unmet savings from the previous year and extra money for social care to find.

Latest estimates suggest about £35m of savings have not been found, so the council will have to use almost all of its reserves to bail itself out before April.

Up until this year, the council had tried to find savings by operating more efficiently, by streamlining how it delivered services.

That approach became unsustainable in 2024 as the need to cut deeper meant residents bore the brunt of the council's desperation.

And with it, garden waste charges were quickly introduced, recycling centres became bookable public services, road repairs were postponed, parking charges increased and the council's Shrewsbury headquarters, the civic heart of the county, were vacated to save on bills.

More than ever, residents were asked to pay more and receive less.

That formula is unlikely to change with a new council in 2025.

Earlier this month the council, in collaboration with other party leaders, put forward its proposals to save £8.5m from next year's budget.

Ideas include raising council tax by 4.99% and collecting non-recyclable waste every three weeks instead of fortnightly.

The council is also proposing that Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery and Shrewsbury Castle are closed on Sundays and Mondays all year round, to save less than £50,000 a year.

New opening times could be implemented before the consultation ends on 26 January 2025.

The full extent of next year's budget savings will not be known until its financial strategy is published next month, once the council has had time to comb through the funding settlement handed to it by central government.

But the council has already warned that it was "not expecting the announcement to change its overall budget position".

With 77% of the council's budget being spent on social care, up from 58% in 2018, the demand for essential services is not expected to ease any time soon.

On top of growing demand, the council will have to meet additional staffing costs from April, with a rise to the national living wage and employer National Insurance contributions announced in the Chancellor's Budget in October.

So it looks like 2025 could be as tough, if not tougher, for those elected to run Shropshire Council.

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