On Thursday at the Strategy Committee at Babergh, Councillors took a break from discussing the arrangements for closer integration with Mid Suffolk District Council in order to take time to examine the pressing issue of balancing the Council’s budget for 2011/12.
Now that we know the worst with regard to our grant settlement from central government for the next two years we are able to finalise the numbers. We have to make up for something close to a 15% reduction in the grant, which, taking cost pressures etc into account, amounts to £1.3million in cash terms. It goes without saying that given the size of the overall budget (around £11m), this cannot be achieved without some pain.
Staff costs are a good proportion of the council’s expenditure and thus, sadly , more than half of the cost reductions are being met, in one way or another, by a reduction in costs related to Babergh’s employees. So far we have managed to avoid compulsory redundancies and a good deal has been achieved by slow, or no, filling of vacancies, natural wastage, early retirement and the like. Members of staff have also been flexible in accepting reductions in performance related pay and other benefits. Unfortunately, it is hard to see how compulsory redundancy can be avoided indefinitely.
Another area in which quite significant savings can be made is the area of public toilets. Babergh does not have a statutory duty to provide these, and is now seeking to pass responsibility to the parishes or towns in which they are situated. On the whole these are either urban or rural tourist areas such as Long Melford. Concern was expressed by one member, from East Bergholt, that failure to maintain the facilities will cause major ‘inconvenience’ to visiting coach parties etc, and this might deter tour operators from visiting our beauty spots. I hope that this will prove to be wrong.
We also expect to see the benefit, a saving of £25,000, from the recent pilot merger of legal services with Mid Suffolk District Council, and next year could see some first savings from the new Revenues and Benefits partnership with Mid Suffolk and Ipswich.
Finally some cuts are likely to be made once again to grants to the community. Next year they will be some 14 % lower than this, when they amounted to a little over £300,000. The choices that have to be made here are amongst the most difficult. It is important to recognise that the reductions are not made as a result of whim and caprice, although it may seem like that when one of one’s favourite good causes receives less money. There is a policy in place, which was last reviewed in October, and this aims to ensure that adequate funding is maintained for those activities that are most closely aligned with the Council’s long term aims and priorities.
One of the reasons that many of us are keen to increase co-operation with Mid Suffolk is to ensure that at least some of these grants are secured for the future.
To see the current budget proposals in full go to the Babergh Website and click on Council and Democracy/Council and Committee Papers/Strategy Committee/January 13th Agenda/ Paper 166. They still have to be scrutinised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and then, after any amendments, will be voted on by mid Council in due course.
