Bury Council faces a £9.6m gap for 2027/28 even after £10.7m of new cuts. It plans to charge for brown bins, cut crossing patrols and raise gym fees 20%.
Bury Council is still £9.585m short of a balanced budget for 2027/28, even after £10.747m of new savings. Its finance director now wants to open talks with the government about emergency help.
The figures are in the draft budget report going to Overview and Scrutiny on Tuesday 13 October and to Cabinet on Wednesday 14 October. Before any new savings, the gap for next year is £20.332m.
The savings that most residents would notice go out to public consultation from 19 October to 30 November. They include:
- a charge for brown bin garden waste collections, from March 2028
- cutting 32 of the borough’s 41 school crossing patrol points
- removing the council’s remaining permanent youth service staff
- raising leisure centre prices by 20% a year for two years
- dimming or switching off some street lights overnight
- removing the £533.87 weekly cap on home care charges
Council tax is pencilled in to rise by 4.99% in April 2027, the most allowed without a referendum.
Why the council is asking for emergency help
The report asks Cabinet to let the Section 151 officer, the council’s chief finance officer, open talks with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about Exceptional Financial Support. It says this “would not constitute a formal application”, but would leave time to make one before the budget is set in February.
Exceptional Financial Support usually means the government lets a council pay day to day costs from capital money, such as land sales or borrowing. The report says the scheme can also allow council tax rises above the referendum limit. It says 36 councils needed the support to set a 2026/27 budget.
For Bury, the report’s preferred route for any gap left in February is capital receipts or a council tax increase, rather than new borrowing. Borrowing would add interest costs and widen the gap. The council is also refreshing its list of land and buildings to sell.
The council’s press release of 6 October put it this way. Councillor Sean Thorpe, the deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, said: “This is not simply a conversation about next year’s budget. It is a conversation about the future shape of the council.”
Where the money has gone
The report puts this year’s forecast overspend at £5.691m on a £252.135m budget. Most of it is in adult social care, children’s placements and agency staff. Social care now takes 80% of the council’s core budget, according to the press release.
That overspend is being covered from reserves. The report shows how fast they have run down.
| Year end, 31 March | Earmarked reserves |
|---|---|
| 2020 | £131.6m |
| 2021 | £115.5m |
| 2022 | £91.8m |
| 2023 | £89.6m |
| 2024 | £61.6m |
| 2025 | £53.6m |
| 2026 | £44.1m |
That is a fall of £87.477m, or 66%, in six years. The Budget Stabilisation Reserve, the main pot for plugging gaps, is forecast to fall from £15.599m to £5.977m by March 2027. The report says that is not enough to cover next year’s £9.585m gap.
The report also argues that Bury is underfunded. Its core spending power works out at £1,278.11 a head in 2027/28, against a Greater Manchester average of £1,393.87. At the average rate, the report says, Bury would get about £9.9m a year more. It also has the smallest council tax base of the ten Greater Manchester boroughs, so each 1% rise raises less. In Bury, 1% is worth about £1.311m.
The six proposals going out to consultation
A charge for brown bins
Brown bin collections would become an annual subscription. Households that do not pay would lose garden waste collections, but food waste collections would stay free, as the law requires. The report does not give a price.
The timeline in the report puts the go-live date at March 2028. The saving is £562,000 in 2028/29. The report warns the charge could cut recycling rates and increase fly-tipping. It notes that garden waste tonnages fell 16.62% in Stockport and 10.24% in Trafford after they started charging.
School crossing patrols
The council has rated each crossing point by risk:
- 6 are high priority and would keep a patrol
- 6 are medium priority and 26 are low priority, and would lose theirs
- 3 are to be recounted in November before a decision
That would delete 15 staffed posts. School crossing patrols are not a legal duty, the report says. The saving is £187,000 over two years.
The youth service
The proposal would remove “the remaining permanent staffing establishment within the Youth Service”, which the report puts at 2 full-time posts. The report lists what council delivery would stop:
- universal youth provision
- targeted early help and preventative support
- the Youth Cabinet, Youth Mayor and Youth MP work
- SEND participation opportunities, though statutory SEND duties would still be met
- community-based youth engagement programmes
The council says it will keep looking for grant funding and partners to run youth work instead. The saving is £145,000 from April 2027.
Leisure centre prices
Prices at council leisure centres already rise 10% a year under last year’s budget. The proposal adds another 10%, so prices would rise 20% in each of 2027/28 and 2028/29. A monthly membership would go:
| Year | Monthly membership |
|---|---|
| Now | £35.75 |
| 2027/28 | £42.90 |
| 2028/29 | £51.48 |
| 2029/30 | £56.63 |
The report says Ramsbottom’s leisure centre, with about 1,300 members, costs the council about £230,000 a year to run and needs around £1m of repairs. The preferred option is to keep it open and raise prices across all sites to pay for it. The service is also forecast to overspend by £680,000 this year while the new Radcliffe centre builds up members.
Street lights
The council’s remotely controlled LED street lights are being set to dim by 50% between midnight and 6am. One option under review goes further and would switch off alternate lights, up to 2,500 lanterns. The saving target is £40,000 a year, and the report says studies have found no link between trimming lights and crime or collisions. Locations would be chosen after a review, and some areas would be exempt.
Home care charges
People who get care at home currently pay no more than £533.87 a week, however much their care costs. The council proposes to remove that cap from 1 April 2027. It affects 38 people, whose average age is 81. The report puts their average increase at about £380 a week. Charges would still depend on a financial assessment, and the home is not counted as an asset.
Jobs
Applications for the council’s voluntary exit scheme have closed. The report says current plans assume £5.48m of workforce savings from deleting vacant posts and redesigning teams, about 5% of the staffing budget. It also says the council “cannot rule out the possibility of compulsory redundancies being required”.
What happens next
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Tuesday 13 October | Overview and Scrutiny Committee considers the draft budget |
| Wednesday 14 October | Cabinet is asked to approve it for consultation |
| 19 October to 30 November | Public budget consultation |
| November | Separate Cabinet report on car parking and highways enforcement savings |
| Wednesday 10 February 2027 | Cabinet considers the final budget |
| Wednesday 24 February 2027 | Full Council sets the budget and council tax |
Cabinet has not yet made any decision. Every proposal above is a draft.
What it means for you
- Your council tax is likely to rise 4.99% next April. Check your band on our Bury council tax bands page. A bigger rise would need a local referendum or the government’s agreement under its emergency support route.
- Your brown bin is not changing yet. Collections carry on as normal. A charge, if approved, would not start before March 2028. Today’s schedule is on our bin collection days page.
- If your child’s school has a crossing patrol, it may be on the list. The report does not name the 41 points. Ask the school, and respond to the consultation.
- If you pay for a council gym or swim membership, expect £42.90 a month from 2027/28 if the plan goes through.
- You can have your say from 19 October. The consultation runs to 30 November. We will link to it when the council publishes it.
Have your say