If you follow local government social media you would assume that the work of a district council coming out of lockdown has largely been about swimming pools , barriers and parking.
As ever, the bigger challenges slip under the radar.
At Council last month we published a paper called our Recovery and Regeneration Investment Strategy. This is important for the future of the Forest and the future of this council.
Like many councils, we face dramatic levels of underfunding. Taking cuts and inflation into account, local government has lost about a third of its spending power in the last decade. This has meant that we have had to become far more efficient and far more commercial.
For the Forest of Dean District Council, this has meant that many of our services are provided by Publica, a company jointly owned by this council and the district councils of Cotswolds, Cheltenham and West Oxfordshire. This has meant that we have been able to keep local accountability while bringing in the efficiencies of a larger body.
But even with the savings that this has brought we still need to find £3.4million to bridge the gap between what we currently expect to spend by 2024 and what we predict we will have coming in - that's about a third of what we currently spend each year.
Other councils have been much more commercial than us. Although some may doubt it, we currently make a loss in parking services, something which very few councils do. And we cannot just change that by simply removing the charges and the management of the Car Parks. There's maintenance ,lighting insurance and existing contracts to consider.The reason why Westminster Council has the lowest council tax in the country is directly related to the fact that it has the highest parking income.
But some other councils have gone down a different route - one district council in the south-east of England has used the low interest rates available to them to build up a billion-pound property empire of office buildings and shopping centres - something that may have seemed a lot more sensible before Covid-19 meant that fewer people seem likely to work in offices and online shopping has delivered further blows to the High St.
This isn’t our model of commercialisation (although FODDC considered part buying retail space outside of the district before we decided that the sums didn't quite add up and frankly that isn’t the business we are in). But we do need to be more commercial.
The Recovery and Regeneration Strategy is important because it sets out our model of investment. We will make investments with money raised commercially and borrowing, but this will be spent in our distinct. Our approach will be to deliver much-needed investment for Housing, Jobs and Green Infrastructure in the Forest while also making sure that the Council makes a return on investment to support our annual budget. We want to enhance our towns and create new jobs.
And our principles are not just driven by geography. The Council’s Vision is “To make the Forest of Dean a great place to live, learn, do business and enjoy”.
And value for money isn't our only value. We need to generate income to secure services for the future, but we will also consider the social, economic, environmental and biodiversity impacts of any investments, as part of our ambition to make the council (and the District) carbon neutral by 2030.
On the ground, this will mean investments will be aimed at reinvigorating town and commercial centres to underpin economic vibrancy. They will support green energy and carbon reduction and our property investments will be based on providing sites and premises that support jobs and economic regeneration. And ultimately, I would like to get back into the business of providing affordable social housing.
We also need to work with existing developers and ensure their local contribution, currently S106, is spent to the best advantage of the Forest, helping to protect quality of life. We will be examining the use of S106 monies and prudent borrowing in support of a new modern Five Acres leisure Centre for instance. In fact I am convinced that local investment in sport, leisure and recreation throughout the district is not only long overdue but can benefit the Council financially. For instance our football and rugby teams need accessible all year round artificial G3 and G4 pitches so that when the dark nights and the poor weather hits the seasonal migration of clubs, youngsters through to first teams battling with each other for an opportunity to pay over inflated sums for an hour or so on an artificial pitch in Monmouth or Gloucester or somewhere else, comes to an end. They should have those facilities here in our district. That money, those kids and those clubs should be able to remain here in the Forest.All our facilities need assessment and potentially______ investment.
If you add to that bowls, indoor nets for cricket, athletics and yes swimming alongside a myriad of other sports, facilities of this kind are hugely important for all of us. Why shouldn't the Forest have them? Why should our communities not have those opportunities?
Alongside all of this we will have to make changes to services, properly meeting the cost of existing services while developing these new income streams.
But we know council money is your money. Council borrowing is your borrowing and we have a duty to spend carefully while we develop and improve an already wonderful place full of remarkable people. The money will be spent where our heart is.
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