Questions raised over transfer of almost £1m unspent council money to reserves and the mayor’s office

An unspent £900,000 from Bristol City Council’s budget last year will go towards reserves and the mayor’s office.

As the council spent less than it budgeted, questions have been raised about how that leftover money should be spent. Green councillors pressed for the money to go towards reopening public toilets, improving safety outside schools, and investing in parks, during a cabinet meeting on June 7.

Despite a majority of councillors agreeing these spending priorities in February, when this year’s budget was set, the £900,000 will instead go into the council’s reserves and towards the mayor’s office, to be spent on things like a war memorial and a poet, according to the mayor Marvin Rees.

Details of how much money the council actually spent over the last financial year, compared to what was budgeted, were revealed in a recent cabinet report.

The report showed the financial burden of Covid was less on the council than expected, and the council also received more income than expected from the NHS for providing adult social care services. £400,000 will go to the mayor’s office and £500,000 will go towards the council’s reserves.

Cllr Heather Mack, leader of the Green group on the council, said: “In February a majority of councillors voted to increase funding to improve safety outside schools, increase investment in local parks, and reopen public toilets. When faced with nearly a £1-million underspend last year, why should the money go to the mayor’s office and reserves, instead of what were clearly the democratic priorities of this chamber?”

Mr Rees replied: “The mayor’s office works on delivering the democratic priorities as voted for by the people of Bristol—they voted for the mayor’s office and that’s what we do. This includes supporting the mayoral commissions and their work, events such as the Falklands war memorial this coming weekend, the city leadership programme, and the city poet.”

In February earlier this year, when the council set the current budget, councillors voted to approve several budget amendments including reopening public toilets, improving safety outside schools and investing in parks. But despite a majority of councillors voting in favour of these amendments, the mayor ignored them, instead making a deal behind the scenes with Conservative councillors in order to get his budget through.