Proposal to dim Bury’s street lights to reduce council costs

This will examine whether fees can be levied on sites in the towns of Prestwich, Radcliffe, Whitefield, Tottington and Ramsbottom, without affecting the ‘vibrancy’ of each town.

Councilors are yet to agree on any of the proposals, which will be put to the authority’s Labor leadership at a meeting next week when they start setting the budget for the 2025-2026 year.

Other measures being put forward include cutting a number of senior positions within the authority through redundancy and early retirement, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

It is understood that the review of parking in the borough will only aim to introduce charges where this is “commercially viable”.

The measure is expected to generate around £126,000 in revenue, while dimming street lights would save around £209,000 a year in energy costs.

The budget-saving measures come as finance chiefs at Bury council warned that tough decisions will have to be made as they start the process of setting a 2025/2026 budget.

The council has already set a huge budget deficit of £35 million for the three years to 2028.

Potential savings of £9.4 million have been identified, the authority said. Adding other measures would reduce the remaining gap to around £22 million.