More city centre enforcement officers and fewer lollipop ladies: How Peterborough City Council plans to balance its budget this year

Doubling the city centre enforcement team, building more than 80 new mausoleums and cutting lollipop men and ladies are among the ways Peterborough City Council (PCC) is considering trying to save cash.

The authority has published a first draft of its 2024/5 budget plan, which it says contains savings and transformation plans totalling £11m.

The document lays out ways in which it will make these savings and balance its budget – which all councils are required to do each year by law – as well as tackle last year’s £3m overspend and address future budget gaps.

Increasing the enforcement team, firstly, will help generate money through fines, it says, as well as help attract new businesses to Peterborough by ensuring it appears “safe, welcoming, and attractive”.

Fines for antisocial behaviour in the city centre had dropped by more than 60 per cent over the last six years, in part because the council ended its contract with security company Kingdom Services Group and brought enforcement in house.

Mausoleums could ‘generate an additional income’

Building 81 mausoleums, which are above-ground burial chambers, at Fletton Cemetery will, moreover, “generate an additional income” through sales, PCC says, if planning permission is approved.

The council will also review its school crossing patrol services at the five schools where it still funds these, it adds, which could result in them being cut and replaced by volunteers or lollipop men and ladies provided by the schools.

Budget gaps remain in future years

Budget documents currently forecast a £3.3m gap in 2025/6 and £6.9m gap in 2026/7.

Pressures include uncertainty around government settlements, an increase in the national living wage, high levels of inflation, increased energy costs and an increase in demand for social care and housing services.

In order to address some of the pressures around social care, PCC proposes establishing a new social care academy to support newly-qualified staff and reduce its reliance on costly agency staff.

It will also look at “exploring international recruitment”, it says.

Last council community centre could be made private

Another cost-saving measure it lists is transferring the last council-run community centre, Gladstone Park, to a third party.

Others include sharing a legal and governance services role with another local authority, while decoupling its fostering service from Cambridgeshire County Council.

It will also try to increase the number of available school places to cut transport costs and seek sponsors for its Christmas lights, it says.

Previously-announced cost-saving and money-making measures include permanently switching off the Cathedral Square fountains, ending its contract with corporate partner Serco early, increasing council tax by 4.99 per cent per year, increasing fees and charges for its car parks and waste services and undertaking a wide-ranging review of its assets – which could see some repurposed or sold.

‘Overall financial risk has increased’

PCC remains £462m in debt, with almost 20 per cent of this due this year.

It has had to slash its cash reserves, with the latest forecast seeing the balance fall from £70m in 2022/3 to £41m in 2023/4 to absorb inflationary pressures among others.

PCC’s reserves, or cash savings, are projected to continue falling, with a further £10m expected to be spent by the end of the 2024/5 financial year.

“The overall financial risk has increased,” budget documents say, “and financial resilience appears to have been weakened at this stage”.

PCC still has an “ambitious” £130m capital programme, though, it continues, and will continue to progress with several large-scale projects including regenerating the city’s Station Quarter, former TK Maxx building and area known as Middleholme.

The budget will be scrutinised and debated by councillors multiple times in coming months before they are asked to vote on the proposals.

It will be presented by the Peterborough First group which currently controls the council.

This means it is the first budget in two decades not presented by the council's Conservative group.