By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
There are concerns Gloucester council leaders’ ambitions for the city may be “just a wishlist with no money to pay for it”.
The Liberal Democrat leadership at North Warehouse aims to “put the heart back into the city”.
But opposition councillors raised questions about the lack of money set aside to make their ambition a reality in next year’s budget.
The authority’s plan sets out the strategic direction of work for the council over the next four years and how it intends to deliver its priorities is due to be debated by all councillors later this month.
The plan aims include making Gloucester a vibrant and attractive city that celebrates its unique heritage and foster inclusive, thriving communities where residents feel safe.
But Labour group leader Terry Pullen (L, Moreland) was among those who ask where the money was to make their ambitions a reality.
He raised questions at the budget overview and scrutiny committee meeting on January 20 about how Gloucester City Council would fund the initiatives outlined in their corporate plan.
“How are you going to budget for those? Are they in this plan?
“You cannot bring a budget forward for new initiatives if they are not in there.”
He also asked about the £20,000 that had been put aside for the creation of a public arts strategy.
“£20,000 just for officer time,” Cllr Pullen said. “In terms of the public art itself, how is that going to be funded?
Council leader Jeremy Hilton (LD, Kingsholm and Wotton) said funding for public art projects would be sought after the strategy is completed.
The cost of projects will depend on whether public art projects are created by community artists, by commission or done as part of major development projects.
But Conservative group leader Stephanie Chambers (Quedgeley Fieldcourt) echoed Cllr Pullen’s concerns and said there “seemed to be a lot of aspiration that is not properly funded or funded at all”.
“I don’t want [us] to be making headlines about doing all this amazing stuff and then residents feel disappointed it doesn’t happen because the money is not there,” she said.
Cllr Hilton said the corporate plan should be approved this month and there would be various costs in it.
However, he said it would be over a period of several years.
“The first thing we will do as an administration, is ask officers to look at the projects we’ve identified and look at how we can carry them out within the current staffing profile.
“It may be that staffing profile are amended as jobs are allocated. Some bits of work might be stopped. We’ve got to look at that.
“Things like the Greyfriars project which is in the corporate plan will be covered out of the total cost of the project. We are already appointing a project manager who will carry out.
“It’s not ongoing expenditure but at the moment the corporate plan has not been agreed. If there are areas that need increases in the budget, we would do that.”