The Council has approved the £116 million revenue budget for 2020/21. Members considered the recommendations of the Cabinet and after considering a number of objections agreed the Cabinet’s proposals last night.

We continue to face financial pressures as a result of a reduction in our Revenue Support Grant from central government from £42 million to £6.5 million in the last seven years and increasing demand on high cost services such as social care.

Over 870 people and organisations responded to the consultation and as a result of the feedback, the Cabinet amended its proposals and these have now been approved. Details can be found at
www.torbay.gov.uk/budget-202021

Leader of the Council, Steve Darling, said: “I would like to thank all those who participated in our consultation events for their contributions.

“Our biggest challenge as a Unitary Authority is that when we have £1 to spend the majority has to be spent on statutory services like children’s and adult social care, meaning the cuts fall mostly on things that we don’t have to provide by law such as parks and gardens, public buildings, toilets, beach services, sports facilities.

“As a consequence of current cuts in central government funding the Council needs to find £10.5 million of savings to balance next year’s budget – so difficult decisions have to be made.

“Our top priority is to turn around Children’s Services and we are investing £2.8 million to invest to save in this service. Our budget also seeks to enable communities to help us tackle many of the services that the government do not fund, such as flower beds and keeping our beaches clean.

“We have also invested in a climate change officer and a housing officer to drive the pace of more affordable housing in Torbay. We are amongst the worst in Devon at recycling and so as part of our drive to improve recycling in the bay we plan to trial three weekly residual waste collections in a part of the Bay.”