“POOR” and “non-progressive” were just some of the ways Salisbury Conservative councillors described the newly approved budget.

During Monday night’s Salisbury City Council meeting (January 17), 13 members welcomed a calculated budget of £3,502,565 for 2022/23, which equates to a precept per band D property of £233.

This is an increase of £25, or 12 per cent.

Conservative members of the council however were not impressed with the breakdown of figures, in particular where money was being directed and how much, cuts in some areas and justification of the hike in tax, leading to their rejection.

'A hope to see real change'

Opening the budget discussion at Salisbury Guildhall, Councillor Victoria Charleston (Lib Dem), chairman of the council’s finance and governance committee, said this year’s budget would “address difficult financial constraints”, while creating a “fairer, greener city”.

Describing the budget as both “green” and “responsible”, with a £75,000 pot dedicated to the environment, Cllr Charleston said the budget needed to “balance ambition of our vision against peoples’ pockets”.

Money has been earmarked for initiatives including tree planting, public art, organisations Wiltshire Creative and Salisbury Museum and the future of Salisbury, including its roads, tourism and businesses.

Repairing the Guildhall roof and maintaining CCTV services are just some of the projects under the capital budget.

“This is no quick solution but we hope to see real change,” Cllr Charleston added.

'No ambition or leadership'

The budget faced backlash from Conservative members of the council, with Cllr Charles McGrath (Con) describing it as “a poor budget that doesn’t deliver on anything that was promised last year”.

This was echoed by other members of the same party, with Cllr Sven Hocking (Con) later saying: “We haven’t done anything for youth, our events, we haven’t done anything for arts and heritage, music.

"There’s just no ambition or leadership, this is a nothing budget.”

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Climate change concerns

Focussing on the climate and ecological crisis in particular, Cllr Jeremy Nettle (Con) said he was “disappointed” that more wasn’t being done to make the city more carbon neutral, describing the budget put to the council as “a lost opportunity”.

“It’s just a bit more of doing what we’re already doing,” he said, “when there are so many more ways we can get involved, there’s just nothing new.”

Describing the budget as “non-progressive”, Cllr Mark Mewse (Con) also questioned “what is green” about the figures and lines of work put forward.

Despite this, the council was told £21,000 would be used for tree planting, a Jubilee avenue of trees is being planned for Hudson's Field, and with help from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, a strategy to create a network of greenery for wildlife is underway.

In response to Conservative concerns, as well as queries that only £10,000 was earmarked for art funding, Cllr Charleston said “we are doing what we can in our restricted budget”, adding: “The budget needs criticism and work, but I want to remind councillors work is going on outside of this too.”

Policing, security and CCTV

Security and policing were other issues raised by councillors, with concerns that the budget would result in less resources in the city centre.

Arguing against this point, Cllr Paul Sample (Lib Dem) said more officers are available if the force decides to deploy them to Salisbury, so the case of more resources should be made to the police and crime commissioner.

Cllr Hocking urged that further funding was needed for CCTV, to introduce it to more areas around the city and treat current kit as a rolling maintenance project.

In response Cllr Annie Riddle (Ind), on behalf of the city council’s leadership group, said: “We really appreciate the job that Venture Security do, particularly in dealing with street drinkers and antisocial behaviour.

“We are well aware that they dealt with 2,600 incidents in the city centre last year. Their contract is funded for the coming year. Then it expires. So, as with any other contract, we will be reviewing it.”

Praise for the budget

Cllr Sample said the latest budget “displays skill and expertise”, and claims Conservative councillors gave little contribution to its creation but were ready to scrutinise and make costly suggestions during the meeting.

He suggested the Conservatives bring their own version of the budget to full council to discuss, but this was dismissed.

During the meeting Cllr Riddle also invited the Conservatives to return to the joint administration leading the council, formed of herself, Cllr Charleston and Cllr Ian Tomes (Lab), adding “our door is always open”.

In favour of the budget, Cllr Ricky Rogers (Lab) said: “We all want to do more but we need to appreciate this is the real world, and this is the first step.”

He added this budget is “tapping into priorities” and is “taking a careful step in the right direction.”

Cllr Tomes added that the budget is “safe, sensible and cautious”, with an aim to tackle "historic issues" faced by the authority.

The motion was carried, with 13 councillors in favour and nine against.

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