New Year Message – From Martin Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire County Council

We have a major push from central government for a large increase in house building, particularly across south east England. The tens of thousands of new houses that will be required in Buckinghamshire to cope with the rapidly-growing population will bring massive changes.

As a County Council, we will continue to urge our colleagues in District Councils to protect our precious Green Belt, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and most attractive rural countryside. Nevertheless, not only will towns expand but there will be more traffic and demands for key infrastructure from roads and schools to health facilities. This will be a great challenge and it is important that local councils work together as a team to try to meet this need.

There will also continue to be pressure on our environment from other threats such as flooding, pollution, fly-tipping or crime. Again we must all work whether as individuals or councils to not only reduce external impacts but also make such anti-social behaviour unacceptable.

One of the biggest challenges we face in Buckinghamshire is coping with the need to keep children safe, particularly from the threat of sexual exploitation. There have been too many cases in the area of gangs and individuals preying on vulnerable children. Despite our very limited financial resources, the County Council will continue to invest with our partners in the Police, Health and Education to tackle this modern scourge.

I am not forgetting the need to continue to invest in restoring our roads. Over the past five years, we haveinvested close to £100 million on major road and pavement improvements. Much has been done but much still remains to do. We will continue to invest in these although we will not be able to maintain the previous levels of expenditure.

Lastly, it is important that I make residents and local businesses aware of our financial position. The County Council is an efficient organisation. We have saved more than £100 million by savings and increased income over the past five years. We have also sold off land and property and entered into cost-saving partnerships with other councils. Our staffing levels have reduced very significantly.

Nevertheless, these savings will not be enough to cope now with the complete loss of all Government funding and indeed a new ‘tax’ being levied on our Business Rate income. We will be forced to consider an increase in our Council tax to fund services particularly the high-cost, high-growth care for our county’s elderly. I am aware that this will not be popular with many residents but, along with more reductions to services, will be necessary to cope with increased demand.

The year ahead will be challenging financially but also potentially rewarding with the opportunity to shape the places we live in, with more services devolved to local Parish and Town Councils and more integration across the public sector, particularly between the care received from local councils and the health service.

Tough times but also exciting times. Here’s to a great 2016 in Buckinghamshire.