Council cash 'makes an impact' against knife crime

The Safety Centre got £10,000 from Milton Keynes City Council last year to run knife-crime workshops in schools

A Milton Keynes charity has said the cash it gets from the city council to tackle knife crime is making an "enormous difference".

The Safety Centre received £10,000 from the authority last year to help it deliver more education workshops in schools.

However, as the city prepares for another round of local elections, the council's leader has warned the authority has "difficult financial decisions to make" in future.

A third of the council's 57 seats will be on next month's ballot papers.

The Safety Centre celebrates its 30th birthday this year and has already delivered knife education sessions to more than 14,500 students.

However, stabbings in the city in the summer of 2023 prompted it to want to do more early intervention work with younger children.

Chair of trustees Catriona Morris said: "The more kids we can get to, clearly, the better. Knife incidents have started to reduce in the area and I'd like to think that our involvement is a part of that."

With council budgets constantly under the microscope, Ms Morris added that if the charity lost funding from the authority, it would have an impact on its work.

She said: "We need about £700,000 a year to run the Safety Centre. We have teachers and staff that work on projects. They all need individual funding, so we go out to lots of places. We've had lottery funding recently, but when you lose a funder, it's vital."

Milton Keynes is currently jointly controlled by Labour and the Liberal Democrats

Milton Keynes City Council is run by a Labour and Liberal Democrat alliance, although Labour needs only two gains next month to become the first party to take full control since 2006.

Milton Keynes has recently put council tax bills up by almost 5%, meaning if you live in a Band D property in the city you will be paying an extra £9 a month.

In February, the authority's budget was agreed, including savings of almost £7m. Since 2010, it has had to make cuts of more than £200m.

With an increasing number of councils in England effectively declaring themselves bankrupt, where does that leave Milton Keynes?

Labour council leader Pete Marland said at some point "there will be difficult decisions to make"

Pete Marland has been the Labour leader of the council for almost a decade so he has been involved in making decisions over the majority of those savings.

He told the BBC that "compared with the rest of the country, in Milton Keynes we are quite positive".

"We managed to bring down the costs last year, obviously with a tonne of inflationary pressures," he said.

"We've still managed to bring the budget quite near to what we set last year. And for next year we've managed to balance it without using reserves."

However, Mr Marland warned that at some point "difficult decisions will have to be made" regarding the authority's finances.

"Obviously, there's going to be a general election this year, but things like inflation matter to us, too. There are also the increasingly difficult costs around children's placements. We are nearly in a place where just one child can cost nearly £1m a year."

Lib Dem leader Robin Bradburn said less money in reserves meant less chance to improve the cycle network

The political alliance has given Liberal Democrat leader Robin Bradburn a place at the top table on the council for three years.

His party has 16 seats at the moment but he is optimistic they can gain a couple more on 2 May.

Mr Bradburn agreed the authority's finances were "better than many of our neighbours" thanks to "years of financial prudence and a good scrutiny system".

But he told the BBC a review of business rates this year had left the council with lower reserves.

"We've always budgeted for the business rates reset to put money into improving things like our Redways cycle network," he said.

"This is the first year we've not been able to do that because things are getting so tight, but I'm very proud we have been able to finance things like the Safety Centre."

Conservative group leader David Hopkins wants more funding for public transport

The Conservatives are the official opposition but are defending nine of their 14 seats next month.

David Hopkins, who has been the group's leader for almost two years, described the council's finances as "satisfactory".

But he added: "There is money to deal with a number of things that aren't being dealt with at the moment.

"We need to concentrate on key issues, and one of those is addressing climate change. To do that we need to offer people choice, and the choice we need to offer them is public transport."

Mr Hopkins told the BBC that "Milton Keynes deserves better".

"We are a great city, we have a great future, but we can't talk about a climate emergency then do nothing about it."

Alan Francis from the Green Party wants the next government to give more powers to councils

The Green Party doesn't have any city councillors but it is putting forward a full slate of candidates.

Alan Francis has stood for the party in Milton Keynes elections for more than 40 years and goes again in Wolverton this time.

He said the "real problem is that the government has cut its grant for councils to almost zero".

Mr Francis added that he hoped a new government would change the way decisions were made.

"As Greens we want to see a big increase in funding for local councils, because they are best placed to make decisions in the local area," he said.

"At the moment a lot of those decisions are made in Whitehall, but people in Whitehall don't know [local] circumstances."

Other candidates standing in Milton Keynes at the forthcoming election include one for Reform UK, one for the Heritage Party and three Independents.