Council chiefs in Bath and North East Somerset need to save nearly £12million in 2022/23 but say they have faced much tougher years.

The £136million budget includes some £18million just to keep core services running.

Despite the challenges there are investment plans – including £11.7million for new social housing, £5million for affordable housing, £23.4million of additional investment for waste modernisation and £754,000 for green upgrades for the council's vehicles.

To balance the books the council plans to cut £100,000 from libraries, launch a project to reunite children with their families to save nearly £500,000, keep some empty posts vacant and increase revenue from parking, green waste collections, weddings and events.

Other capital projects in the budget include a £4million unit to accommodate 12 people with special educational needs and disabilities, £385,000 for the Entry Hill bike park, £250,000 for a river mooring strategy and £750,000 to replace Keynsham Memorial Bridge.

Chief finance officer Andy Rothery told scrutiny panel members on January 10: "We have got significant growth requirements just to run the council next year – that's £18million of funding into the council to keep core operations going.

"Ongoing inflationary pressures are significant now and we are predicting there will be risks next year.

"Activity demand is going up. Across all services we are seeing increased costs.

"To keep running core council operations whilst we're coming through the other side of a pandemic it is costing us more money. That has to be recognised in the budget.

"There's two really difficult years in terms of us having to live within our means and find significant savings to balance the budget."

He said things look more positive after that due to predictions the council's income levels will get back to pre-pandemic levels in around 2024, while more homes will bring in more council tax.

Deputy leader Richard Samuel, the cabinet member for resources, said: "We had to make nearly £20million of in-year savings in 2021 on top of the savings already pencilled in, so actually although this is a daunting total this year, there have been much tougher years."

He said the council's income from heritage services and its commercial estate remained depressed but parking income had exceeded expectations.

He said in some ways that is "not a good thing" because although there is a financial benefit, the increased use of cars harms efforts to tackle the climate emergency and air pollution.

Asked why the council was increasing and introducing new parking charges to raise more than £600,000 extra, Councillor Samuel said: "If you do not raise income from the sources that are available to the council what services do you cut?

"That's the binary choice available to the council – the council cannot maintain its level of services unless there is a charge for parking as because the other income sources, the heritage services and commercial estate, are under pressure from the pandemic.

"We felt it was appropriate to look at the parking charges and how they operated and that's why they have been adjusted upwards to reflect the additional income.

"If you don't do that you have to cut something else or you have to raise money from somewhere else – there isn't anywhere else to go.

"Raising parking charges is never popular but many of the charges were out of date and needed to be revised."

Residents are being asked to comment on the proposals before the budget is finalised.

Responses should be emailed to [email protected] by noon on January 24.