Council calls for major changes in how future services are delivered

Senior politicians at Bridgend County Borough Council have warned that ‘necessary, vital and unavoidable’ changes will need to be made to the ways in which services are provided before the local authority marks its 30^th anniversary in 2026.

Their comments have been made ahead of a meeting of Cabinet on 23 July where reports will be discussed on issues ranging from the council’s finances to proposed changes for nursery education, learner transport and more.

Like all local authorities across the country, the last 14 years have been spent dealing with hugely significant financial challenges while trying to deliver hundreds of different services. In that time, our funding has reduced by more than £88.4m - the equivalent of trying to provide high-quality services while cutting over £6.3m from our budget, every year, for 14 consecutive years.

Of course, you cannot keep doing this forever, and the council has finally reached a point where we can no longer provide everything that we have done in the past in the same way.

We are entering a new period of change, and in the face of an ongoing national funding crisis, the council of 2026 will need to be a hugely different organisation to the one that was originally created on 1 April 1996.

Council Leader John Spanswick

Councillor Hywel Williams, Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance, added: “The council is not immune to the cost of living crisis, and huge leaps in the price of materials, goods, energy, fuel and more have all taken their toll, as have global events such as Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.

“Between 2025-26 and 2027-28, we anticipate that spending on services will need to be reduced by a further £32m if the council is to meet its legal responsibility of setting a balanced budget every year, but most options for saving money while protecting people from feeling the full impact of cuts have now been exhausted.

“As a responsible local authority, we have always taken a hard, realistic look at how we provide services, but we have finally reached a point where we must now consider which services can continue, which ones might be provided by alternative organisations in the future, and which may need to undergo significant change or else stop altogether.

“Such changes may be necessary, vital and unavoidable, but we cannot deliver them alone. The next few years are going to be among the most challenging that UK councils have ever had to prepare for, and it is essential that more people understand this, and realise just what kind of difficult choices will need to be made.

“We want to hold open, honest and meaningful discussions with our residents, staff, local businesses, partners and other organisations on what the council of 2026 should look like. Working together, we want to build on the strengths of the past to establish a future for Bridgend County Borough that is secure, sustainable, and brighter.”

The council has already introduced a number of changes that point towards how some services could potentially be delivered in future. In 2002, Bridgend became the first council in Wales to transfer its housing stock over to a not-for-profit provider capable of accessing fresh funding and making wholescale improvements that the council could not otherwise deliver alone.

When Halo Leisure Ltd took on the management of sports centres and swimming pools on behalf of the council in 2012, it resulted in a further multi-million pound programme of investments. Then in 2015, the management of libraries and cultural arts venues was transferred to Awen Cultural Trust, enabling multi-million pound makeovers for the likes of Maesteg Town Hall and the Grand Pavilion.

The council also works with other local authorities to deliver combined services that are more effective and resilient, including the Shared Regulatory Service, the Regional Adoption Service and more. Elsewhere, the community asset transfer initiative is keeping facilities ranging from public toilets to sports pavilions open and available, and in many cases this has also enabled fresh investment to take place.

All of these innovations have delivered benefits for local communities while ensuring that services and facilities have been able to continue even as the council makes necessary and unavoidable savings.

Looking towards the future, Councillor Williams said: “By 2026, we believe that the council will be smaller, smarter and living within its means, but also ambitious and delivering high-quality key services  by working more innovatively, and focusing our available resources in a different way.              

“We have already instigated a number of new measures to save money internally, including only recruiting to key posts that help the council to deliver, reducing the number of buildings and depots the authority needs to use, and only purchasing goods and supplies that are absolutely vital.

“What happens next will largely be guided by the results of engagement with local people, so I hope that you will embrace this opportunity to help shape the future of council services.”

Councillor Spanswick said: “Faced with such a difficult future, we are planning to undertake widespread consultation in the autumn over how the council can work together with local communities and its partners to determine what sort of shape future change should take.

“This will need to be based upon an entirely honest and genuine view of the challenges that stand before us, and of the need to balance what people want with what can realistically be achieved.

“Our resources are not infinite, and it must be realised and accepted that if we invest money in one service, another may well have to miss out unless an alternative way of providing it can be established.

“As we have already seen, this is not impossible, and a number of highly valued services that could have been lost amid cuts have not only been able to continue, but are positively thriving because they are being delivered in a different manner.

“We want this sense of innovation and reinvention to continue, and for us all to work together on finding new ways to deliver and receive council services in the future.”

• The meeting of Cabinet will take place at 2pm on Tuesday 23 July 2024.