As Wiltshire’s ex-cabinet member for Finance I can’t help but take an interest in local authority budgets.

I must admit having read Salisbury City Council 2023/24 budget presented by the Lib Dem/Labour/Independent leadership and attending their full council meeting on Monday, it is unacceptable in my view for Salisbury’s residents to pay an additional 44 per cent, which is rumoured to be one of the highest increases in the country, and for what?

Read more: Salisbury City Council leaders issue statement on council tax increase

From the budget papers it’s difficult to assess the cost drivers - there is a whopping 50 per cent increase in staff costs, likely as a result of insourcing their grounds maintenance contract but where is the corresponding reduction in contract costs?

As a parish council there are no expensive statutory responsibilities driving up costs, such as social care, basically just about every budget line is discretionary spend, leading me to the conclusion the city council is unable to deliver value for money.

There are also some technical anomalies in the presentation such as conflating Revenue and Capital spend, which I won’t bore you with, but on this schedule it reads as if the city council will be unable to balance their budget this year - I presume they will use reserves rather than look for efficiencies or try to improve performance by delivering more for less.

With the Conservative group in opposition, our place on the council is to scrutinise the decisions the leaders make - this is democracy at play and designed to protect the interests of Salisbury’s taxpayer.

So I don’t buy the argument the Conservative group should’ve been sitting at the budget planning table - an alternative budget was prepared by Conservative colleagues in response, saving Salisbury’s tax payers thousands of pounds, but the opportunity for constitutional air-time was compromised - now where’s the sense in that when our job is to act in the best interest of our residents.

In summary and politics aside, in my view there needs to be a review of Salisbury’s budget setting process and value for money assessment by working with officers to achieve this - city council tax increases of this scale cannot continue.

Cllr Pauline Church

Wiltshire Councillor for Wilton

Editor's note: Salisbury City Council leaders Cllrs Victoria Charleston (Lib Dem), Ian Tomes (Labour) and Annie Riddle (Independent), have defended the budget, saying it is not party political and that is it balanced. 

Click the link above to read the council's statement.