09 Mar 2025
SADC’s Liberal Democrat administration recently passed a budget shaped in the face of continued cuts in local government finances, but opposition councillors have criticised many of their decisions.
To ensure a balanced budget for 2025/26, net savings of £325,000 were identified, made up of some additional income sources, increases to charges and reductions to services.
It will be used to fund key services including waste and recycling collections, planning, parks and open spaces, street cleaning, environmental health and grants to voluntary bodies.
Councillors also agreed to a 2.99 per cent rise in SADC’s share of Council Tax bills, and a contribution of £500,000 will be made to the general reserves to restore them to an acceptable level.
Cllr Giles Fry, lead for resources, said after last week’s Full Council meeting, where the budget was approved: “I am pleased that we have agreed to a balanced budget despite the severe financial challenges that we are faced with. “We have managed once again to protect our key services such as our leisure, community and cultural facilities and we also plan to bolster our reserves in case of unforeseen shocks
“The coming year will see our first commercial tenant move into Jubilee Square which will eventually provide us with much-needed new income and we will continue to look for other revenue-raising opportunities.
“I hope that our residents will continue to support the work we are doing to strengthen our communities and cope with the tough financial climate.”
Council leader Cllr Paul de Kort said he was proud of protecting vital services and grants for community organisations, while also offering additional investment into public toilets.
“This has been no small task. Our local council has sustained cuts of 25 per cent from central Government since 2015. At the same time, our local Liberal Democrat team has worked hard to clean up the mess left by Conservatives in our area too.
“We’ve turned the Charter Market around from making a loss to a surplus and it has received a national award. We’ve made around half a million pounds worth of digital efficiencies and sub-let substantial council office space to the NHS. We’ve cut the debt on our general fund, allocated funds for maintenance and repairs which were previously under-funded, and made sure that other core services are now covering their cost of delivery.”
But he warned the increase in National Insurance contributions would cost SADC an additional £185,000 a year, and said the council had been excluded from a Government recovery grant system designed to compensate for changes in other central support programmes.
“With the Labour Government trying to reduce the number of councils overall, it’s not clear for how many more years the district council will continue to exist. But for as long as it does, and for as long as the Liberal Democrats are running it, we will continue to take every measure possible to spend taxpayers’ money wisely and to protect vital services fairly.”
Councillors from other political groups have offered their own feedback to the budget.
Mike Hobday, Labour councillor for London Colney, said: “We are profoundly disappointed that Liberal Democrat councillors voted en-bloc to build the presumption of income from car parking charges at the free Haseldine Road car park in London Colney into the council’s budget for 2025-26. This is a short-sighted decision that, if implemented, would cause enormous damage to local shops and restaurants and drive traffic out of the car park into crowded residential roads. We appreciate that all local councils around the country are short of money – the country has faced a very difficult decade – but it is simply wrong for the council to penalise local communities in a headlong rush to make money from additional charges.”
Simon Grover, leader of the Greens and Independents, said he had various concerns, including the growing budget gaps forecasts for future years, the low level of reserves, service reductions and the “heavy-handed” implementation of some increased charges, without regard for vulnerable groups or their ability to pay.
But he said his biggest concern was the lack of focus on what previous leader Chris White described as the administration’s top priority, fighting the climate emergency.
“SADC has pledged to reach net zero by 2030, yet despite our promises, critical areas of emissions reduction remain neglected, progress is stalling, and we risk failing our residents and future generations.”
He said emissions from road transport have barely fallen in over a decade, and the Climate Emergency UK scorecard gave St Albans a 3 per cent rating for its actions.
“Why? Because we continue to prioritise road traffic over sustainable transport. We have failed to implement a comprehensive cycling infrastructure. Public transport remains unreliable and underfunded. Other councils have introduced imaginative and comprehensive programmes – ours tend always towards a cough and a spit and then giving up.
“From EV charges to community energy to cycle lanes, we have a go but never seem able to commit to anything.”
He said more than half of the homes in St Albans are leaking heat and wasting energy, but a commitment to delivering a local insultation programme has never been implemented and progress on decarbonising heating was dismal.
“Only around 240 heat pumps have been installed in the district—at this rate, we will never transition away from fossil fuels in time. We should be investing in a mass heat pump rollout and district heating schemes, yet we continue to depend on outdated, polluting gas systems.”
Finally, he said the planning framework has been completely inadequate in addressing climate change, the district is two years behind its targets to reduce corporate greenhouse gas emissions, and the sustainability and climate crisis strategy lacks urgency or any measurable objectives.
“We are running out of time. We must urgently prioritise transport reform, home retrofitting, clean heating, and climate-conscious planning. If we continue to delay, we will fail on our net zero commitment. St Albans deserves better.”
Finally, Conservative group leader Cllr Matt Cowley said: “Our Conservative Group produced a fully costed plan that would have removed the damaging parking charges in Harpenden without a significant impact on public services.
“It was clear at the council meeting that the administration are simply unwilling to listen to the real and significant concerns of people in Harpenden about the impact that the parking charges will have on our High Street – and that there is no appetite to make the council leaner and more efficient to get ahead of their projected future budget pressures.
“Our plan would also have set us on a course for further long term efficiency savings next year – reducing the council’s reliance on national Government funding decisions to secure the future of our public services.
“The Conservative Group will never stop fighting for a fair deal for the district council’s residents – breaking away from the short term, budget-by-budget, excuse-led public service cuts of the Liberal Democrats by working towards genuine long term financial planning.
“This budget the Lib Dems have passed does nothing to protect local residents over the long term. They will be coming back for more cuts and higher charges next year – unless national Government bails out their short-term choices.”
