Leeds City Council: Consultation launched on budget plans including ending lease at Thwaite Watermill Museum

People are being asked for their views on the plans, which include shutting down a care home in Morley, ending the lease on the well-loved Thwaite Watermill Museum and introducing car parking charges at three popular city attractions including Roundhay Park.

Other measures that have been proposed include “repurposing” a Rothwell care home and introducing car parking charges in the town.

It comes as the cash-strapped local authority desperately tries to pull itself out of a “dire” financial position, with it needing to save £58.4m over the next 12 months, alongside £7.4m of already agreed savings. If it can’t make those savings, it would effectively be declaring bankruptcy.

On top of the belt-tightening proposals, people in Leeds can expect a 4.99% council tax increase from April – a suggestion branded “ridiculous” by residents.

All of the above have yet to be officially signed off, but were discussed by senior councillors in public for the first time yesterday (December 13).

A meeting of the council’s Executive Board heard that a consultation on the budget proposals has now been launched, and people will have until January 10 to share their views. The consultation can be completed using an online form.

The timeframe is designed to accommodate the announcement of the local government finance settlement, which is expected this month from central government. This is the amount of cash that will make up the budget alongside contributions from council tax.

In the consultation, residents are asked for their opinions on what the council’s priorities should be for the coming year, rather than being asked about each measure specifically.

The final vote on going forward with the cost-saving measures will take place during the council’s February budget meeting.

Conservative Coun Alan Lamb, the leader of the opposition at the authority, said after yesterday’s meeting: “Given the narrative of telling us all how precarious the council’s finances are, I am dumbfounded that not one of the Executive Board members could tell me in the meeting the amount of money that is to be spent on debt next year.

"I already have the answer - it is over £133m which works out as roughly 20% of the Council’s Net Revenue Budget. Or to put it another way, £1 out of every £5 the administration has to spend will be going on debt and not on services.”

He said that he could not understand, with this context, why the council plans to spend money on a “play strategy”.