Lewisham Council set to adopt further cuts in parks and streets next year
Lewisham Council have been drawing up a range of cost savings and cuts with measures being discussed at an Overview and Scrutiny meeting next week.
Contentious measures are on the cards including cuts to park budgets. One is “a £130,000 saving from 2027/28 for a reduction in the Parks grounds maintenance budget, principally reflecting historic cost reductions achieved through contract performance deductions.
“This will reduce the service’s flexibility to undertake additional improvement and noncontractual works but does not remove the core parks offer.”
A separate £100,000 reduction is sought through “through the Green Space Contract, based on reviewing the scope and frequency of routine maintenance activity and focusing resources on safety critical and higher use areas.”
They concede this is likely to lead to impacts upon the “appearance and condition of some parks and reduce flexibility for discretionary improvements”.
Streets
Another area in line for cuts is street maintenance: “The principal maintenance proposal is a £375,000 saving, comprising £200,000 from carriageway and footway maintenance, £75,000 from gully and highway drainage cleansing and a £100,000 recharge reflecting service costs”.
They hope to gain revenue from electric car charging and a lane rental scheme on roadworks.
Planning
The authority are proposing increase planning application fees as well as removing local meetings which they claim will save £35,000.
When it comes to borough markets, “a saving of £110,000 is proposed from 2028/29, through increased income, improved cost recovery and service redesign as part of a wider modernisation programme for the Markets”.
Lewisham market is currently seeing a pavilion constructed funded by levelling-up funds from the last government covering the wider town centre. Costs for that project have recently increased by £4.5 million.
There’s a myriad of other fee increases including an increase in cemetery and crematorium fees and charges by 10%, with the council stating: “charges are expected to remain broadly in line with, or slightly below, comparable London authorities”.
One little snippet I noticed was that they’ve been hiring diggers at a cost of £16,000 a year when buying one outright is £30,000, so doing that should pay for itself within a couple of years.
Total spend
The report before councillors stated that Lewisham is on track for a gross overspend of £9.9 million in 2026/27. In July 2026 they expected to have to make “savings of £64.469m over the four-year period of 2027/28 to 2030/31, with a profile of £20.925m, £13.985m, £23.712m and £5.847m in each year.”
While the need for cuts may change in coming months, officers have drawn up proposals for “£16.888m of savings for 2027/28 and £11.784m for 2028/29 and 2029/30”. As that doesn’t fill the funding gap additional measures will be drawn up should they be needed.
Larger cost savings they hope to achieve include £2 million in temporary accommodation costs next year.
In December 2026 the borough’s Mayor and Cabinet will discuss the latest cost measures and changes to be adopted in 2027/28.
