Council approves £700m budget to keep county running

More than £700m of spending has been approved to help deliver services in Oxfordshire for the year ahead.

The county council's budget for the next financial year was approved at a meeting of full council earlier, with council tax increasing by the maximum 4.99%, meaning people living in a Band D property will pay £2,006.78 for the next year.

An additional £14m for adult social care and £19m for children's services were included in the budget.

Plans by the Liberal Democrat-led administration to delay work for a new mortuary, as well as £250,000 cuts to its transport service, were also passed.

In the next financial year, the local authority has about £716m to spend on council services, topped up to £752m when you add things like money held in reserves and interest received on balances.

But with the council facing a reduction of £24m of central government funding over the next three years, the authority has warned of challenging times ahead.

Dan Levy, cabinet member for finance, said: "This is a really positive budget, in difficult times and it's not going to get any easier."

So what is in and what is out?

The budget included last-minute additions put forward by the Green group, including extra funding for climate change resilience projects and £900,000 towards repairs to footpaths, cycleways and pavements.

But proposals by the Oxfordshire Alliance and the Labour Cooperative group, were rejected, including plans to spend an additional £1.3m per year on pothole repairs and "preventative maintenance."

To balance the books, the authority will make savings including:

• £7.1m coming back into central funds by delaying plans for a new mortuary.

• £2m will be cut from a neighbourhood improvement plan in east Oxford.

• £250,000 will be cut from the transport service in adult social care, children's services and home to school transport.

• £4.5m will be returned into central funds from a programme designed to share leisure facilities with local schools.

While the majority of spending goes on adult social care and children's services, there are some projects that have been earmarked for investment. These include:

• £4m over the next two years to improve drainage to reduce the risk of flooding.

• Plans to redevelop Wantage Market Place are staying, committing £150,000 to progress design and construction for "Phase 1", including replacing the tarmac surface with paving.

• Libraries will also see more investment, with £360,000 for Wantage Library and £250,000 (rising by a further £500,000 in 2027/28) for Goring Library and £550,000 for Didcot Library.

• £400,000 funding will be taken from income generated by the council's car parks, to keeping the county's park and ride joint ticket offer at £5.

• The council has recommitted to delivering a relief road for Watlington, with £3m added to the scheme from the 2026/27 budget.

The budget was passed by 38 votes to 11, with 9 abstentions.