The 31-page budget document has plenty of policies to examine.
But, in the first instance, lots of residents will be asking how much council tax they will have to pay towards the city council’s precept.
The parish’s precept (the amount of money it charges residents) will rise to £5.94 million in the next financial year.
This means a Band D property will see the city council’s share of their council tax bills increase to £382.15 – a rise of £18.15 a year, or 35p a week.
The budget says: “It should be noted that approximately 60 per cent of properties within the city are below Band D, with the most numerous band in the city being Band C.
“Actual parish council tax levels would therefore vary from £254.77 per annum (Band A) to £764.30 per annum (Band H).”
This is how much you will pay towards Salisbury City Council’s services in the 2025-26 financial year (Image: Salisbury City Council)
What does Salisbury City Council want to spend money on?
There are some key investments planned by the parish council in a budget that Lib Dem administration leader Victoria Charleston said shunned “flashy ideas” in favour of a “prudent, responsible and sensible” approach.
These include spending £300,000 on “urgent repairs” to the wall surrounding Wyndham Park, which was described last year as unsafe.
The council will invest £230,000 in solar panels at its Tollgate Road depot with the aim of producing a financial return in the future.
A further £150,000 would be spend on the installation of a ‘de-watering bay’ at the depot to ensure a self-sufficient Streetscene sweeper service.
The council will also invest £20,000 to bring a stage to the Market Square on a six-week trial basis to assess the feasibility of permanent structure.
Read more: Public toilets will close as controversial cost-cutting measure is approved
Letter: Council to discuss tenant for City Hall which could open by end of 2025
It will set aside £180,000 to cover an increase in its employer National Insurance contribution after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget.
A quarter of a million pounds has been budgeted under ‘job evaluation results’, which is a provisional estimate based on 10 per cent of the current paybill.
The council will introduce a new budget for pre-planned preventative maintenance that will average £300,000 per year until 2029-30.
Some smaller schemes caught the eye of Reform UK councillor and deputy mayor Ed Rimmer, who accused the administration of treating residents’ money “with contempt”.
The budget was debated by full council on Monday night (Image: Newsquest) He said the budget was “actively hostile to local businesses”, citing the city council’s plans to buy a mobile bar to use in the Market Place (£13,000), create an internal Guildhall bar (£10,000) and purchase an ice-cream van (£10,000).
Cllr Caroline Corbin (Labour) told him that ice-cream is “very lucrative”.
Each of those schemes are expected to generate a return on investment, but pub owners have criticised the council’s treatment of Market Place tenants and say they will be further burdened by the public toilet closures – something the council denies.
Both cllr Rimmer and cllr Charles McGrath (Conservative) criticised plans to spend £5,000 a year on a ‘MELA’ event to celebrate multi-culturalism.
What savings does the budget identify?
“No major service cuts nor redundancies have been made in the budget proposal,” documents examined by councillors on Monday night said.
The closures of the Central Car Park and underground Market Place toilets will save around £100,000 per year in cleaning and other fees.
Those are the two most costly conveniences run by the city council, which has outlined steps to reduce the impacts of the closures on residents and market traders.
Foodie Sunday will not be held again (Image: Spencer Mulholland Photography) The council will save another £30,000 a year by outsourcing its payroll processing to Wiltshire Council.
Two markets will also be cut from the calendar (the annual Foodie Sunday and the monthly Street Sellers Markets), and Charter Fair stallholders will see rental charges rise by 11 per cent.
A bone of contention raised at the meeting was a 25 per cent rise in the cost of allotments, which could see fees rise by £23 a year for some holders.
To mitigate this, the administration has discussed delaying the collection of fees – usually taken in January – to reduce the squeeze on residents after Christmas.
Council officers are expected to identify a further £1.5 million in “cost reductions” over the next five years, and departmental savings are also being eyed up.
What did the opposition Conservative group’s budget offer?
For the first time, the Conservative group prepared a fully costed budget to be discussed by councillors alongside the administration’s financial plans.
The key differences were found in the Conservatives’ medium-term plans that would have seen three significant investments between 2028 and 2030.
The proposed investments were:
- Raising and and protecting the Churchill Gardens car park in order to make it more commercially viable (£350,000)
- Creating a multi-use artificial pitch in the Bemerton area (£350,000)
- Installing a splash park facility in the city (£250,000)
But their budget also tabled some contentious proposals to save money, such as withdrawing a grant worth £63,000 from Salisbury Museum and the Playhouse.