A £412 million financial package ‘to help the county and its residents get back on their feet’ has been outlined by Wiltshire Council. It includes setting aside a £4 million fund over four years to support market towns hit hard during the pandemic.

The council proposes a 1.99% general increase in basic council tax: £6.6 million allocation for investment in Children’s Social Care and a further £1.5 million to respond to rising demand for special educational needs service: 3% levy specifically for Adult Social Care to address the £8.6 million growth due to increasing age and needs of residents: increased investment in waste services by £2.6 million to a total of £42.3 million: reversal of the planned £1 million reduction in Public Health funding: six-fold increase in its discretionary hardship fund to £300,000, to assist families and residents which need other support from the council: investment of more than £2.1 million to take all leisure service operations in-house: investment of nearly £2 million to help fund the planned £214 million investment in its capital programme, which includes Wiltshire’s road network and schools, including replacing the lower block at Stonehenge School.

Continued investment of £20 million-plus in the council’s Health & Wellbeing centre sites includes significant investment in Melksham Community Campus. Continued investment into carbon reduction initiatives has £3 million for the final transition to LED streetlights, and more than £4 million for energy efficiency projects for its buildings and estate.

Investment of more than £50 million in housing for Wiltshire takes in 1,000 new council houses provided over the next 10 years.

The council said it recognises that, following a year of unprecedented challenges, towns throughout the county will need support to recover. The £4 million fund of £1 million a year for the next four years will be for supporting market towns to recover, but the exact use of the money will be determined in 2021/22.

The council estimates the direct impact of COVID-19 in the 2021/22 budget will be about £5 million, in loss of income from services such as leisure, libraries and car parking but not the loss of council tax.

According to the council, the proposed balanced budget in 2021/22 builds on strong financial management, despite COVID-19, and the council is predicting a balanced 2020/21 budget.

Significant one-off funding support from Government in 2021/22 is in recognition of the ongoing response to the pandemic. “The council recognises the need to maintain services, especially to vulnerable residents, and this has been of paramount importance in putting forward its budget proposals,” a stamen said.

The budget goes to Full Council on February 23.

The draft budget proposals and report can be found at https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1160&MId=13848