Liberal Democrat plans to devolve power and budgets to residents through revised Ward Committees will be discussed next week.

York’s new Lib Dem-Conservative Executive has outlined proposals to significantly increase the funding for devolved budgets to approaching £1million as part of a new approach to community engagement.

Ward Committees will use their allocation to fund projects such street clean-ups and offer grants to local voluntary groups. The process for allocating highway improvements will also be partly localised through the new ward committees with a £250,000 ward highways programme. Work will also be undertaken by council officers to identify further budget areas which could be devolved to wards.

In addition, the enhanced pot could be made up of:

• ‘Ward Grant’ of £150,000 (subject to council budget decision) allocated to each ward committee on a per capita basis.
• ‘Pride in York Fund’ totalling £450,000 made up of £250,000 on a one-off basis and £200,000 per annum on a recurring basis.
• ‘Community Care Fund’ of £75k per annum (from the Adult Social Care Community Development Fund and subject to council budget decision) will be devolved to wards, on a per capital basis, over two years to support the prevention or delay of people needing to access formal care packages and statutory support.

Cllr Keith Aspden, Lib Dem Deputy Leader of City of York Council with responsibility for Economic Development and Community Engagement, said:

“These proposals increase the money for ward committees to spend to nearly £1million. They begin the process of devolving power and budgets to local residents and community groups. We want to give wards this enhanced pot of money so they can genuinely tackle local priorities and develop community initiatives.

“We also want to build on local spending on highways and are asking council officers to explore further budget areas which could be devolved to wards in the future, for example, public health budgets alongside a clear and transparent approach to ward spending.”