How is your council tax going to be spent?

It is budget setting time for councils across the UK, with West Berkshire looking to up council tax by four per cent.

This, and other budget lines for the year ahead, are to be debated at council next Thursday (March 3).

Three quarters of the council tax increase will go on adult social care in the district.

West Berkshire Council plans to invest £220m, but it will borrow £102m, and has factored in loan repayments into the budget costs which run at about 10 per cent.

Around £53m is earmarked for education, and £38m will go on local infrastructure, such as highways.

Twelve million pounds has been set aside to fund leisure projects such as the Monks Lane Sports Hub, Newbury Lido and Northcroft Leisure Centre.

Lobbying groups favouring the Faraday Road site for community football, and therefore opposed to the Monks Lane development are expected at the meeting, with claims that figures are even higher than the council has stated.

The council brings in revenue from council tax, last year around £105m, and business rates – £23m in 2021.

It gets additional adult social care funding of £14m, but is unable to confirm how much it will receive from government next year.

A local authority spending review is unlikely to produce any figures until spring 2022.

Other investment headlines are that £5m will go on social care growth, with £265,000 allocated for biodiversity schemes, such as the wild flower verges.

Key among the investment lines is a £22m commitment to environmental projects. There is £12m price tag for a new council solar farm at Grazeley.

The council intends to generate its own power from the site, but figures are unclear as to when the investment will break even. Solar farms typically have a 25-year life term.

Additional savings from initial financial outlays also include the change in food waste collection which will cost £900,000. It is expected to break even in two to three years time, from which point savings on today’s costs are anticipated.

The council also has a commercial investment portfolio of £62m, from which it declares a £1m annual profit is being made.

Freedom of Information figures requested for the investments made in 2018, which include a petrol station and a number of supermarket properties in other counties, show net income from the commercial investment portfolio between March 2018 and to date is £ 4.67m.

Network capacity improvements at the Robinhood roundabout in Newbury will get £1.5m, and the Kings Road link road another £1m.

Cash levied from developers – know as Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – will pay for improvements and a signals upgrade at the A4/Faraday Road junction, costing £320,000.

Burger King junction improvements are also scheduled to cost £440,000 and a further £500,000 is to be spent on intelligent traffic signs.

Around £54m goes to schools.

More than £10m has been allocated to schools in West Berkshire in anticipation of the impact of large housing developments in the district over the next five years.

The impact at Park House School of additional pupil numbers from the Racecourse and Sandleford housing developments has been estimated at more than £5,476,040.

The Sandleford scheme, which would see around 1,000 houses built, has yet to be approved.

A new primary school, planned to meet the impact from the North Newbury Housing Development, is estimated at £5,152,250 over the next five years.

Other figures shown in budget breakdowns include a £3m spend on replacing the sports hall at Downlands Sport Centre.

The cash is earmarked to replace what is described as “an undersized and poor condition sports hall, with suitable and sufficient facilities to meet the needs of increased numbers of pupils at the school”.

Falkland Primary School is also in line for classroom replacement to address poor condition, poor environmental performance and limited external space. Costs of £87,140 are allocated to it this year, with £2,572,400 next year.