Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council committed to protecting their budget in 2024
BCP Council have called out the previous administration for spending £90 million worth of savings
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council say their top priority this year is to ‘balance their budget’ and make savings.
The local authority inherited a £44 million budget deficit from the previous administration and little to no reserves when they took over in May last year.
Councillor Andy Martin told us: “If we don’t balance our budget, the government will send in commissioners who will basically slash and burn our services. We can't have that happen here.
“We need to make decisions locally and not have government commissioners making decisions for us.”
BCP Council accused the previous administration of spending £90 million worth of savings as a temporary fix instead of “making difficult decisions”.
This administration say they will make difficult decisions with regards to budget cuts but are keen to retain essential services in health and social care.
Cllr Martin said: “The previous administration was all about big shiny projects. What we're about is community and protecting services for the most vulnerable and I think, given the financial challenges that we've got, that's got to be the way to go.
“We have had to make savings when we're consulting on basically reducing some of our services to close that gap and we are trying to ensure that we have a balanced budget and the finances or sound right the way through to 2027.”
For the upcoming year, BCP Council aim to ‘restore the reputation’ of the council and ‘regain the trust’ of residents.
Cllr Martin added: “One of our big priorities is Bournemouth Town Centre. We've had a town centre summit to see how we can improve it and make it a place that people really want to come and spend time.
“On the culture side, I'm really keen to have as many great events and festivals in 2024 across the whole BCP area as possible to make it a really vibrant place.”