1. Introduction

1.1 Members determined the Policy & Finance Committee’s own budget earlier in the meeting. The Committee will now need to consider proposals from each Committee in order to recommend to Council its overall budget and precept for 2008/2009.

2. Principles underpinning Budget Preparation

2.1 Officers have again undertaken a detailed analysis of expenditure to continue to produce a prudent and tighter budgeting regime.

2.2 The arrangements introduced in the last four years for utilisation of commuted open space maintenance contributions over a ten year period, a reduction in the number of the Council’s bank accounts and the strict control of cash flow to enable as much of the Council’s reserves as possible to be invested in high interest deposits has continued, and will continue in the future.

2.3 There is a separation between capital and revenue items, mainly in the Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces Committee’s budget. In some cases whilst expenditure has been earmarked as capital it will nonetheless be financed from revenue.

3. Budget Proposals by Committees

3.1 Other Committees have considered their budgets prior to this meeting. Attached for the Committee’s consideration are the following documents:-

Appendix A – Base budget approved by Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces Committee

Appendix B – New proposals in priority order by Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces Committee

Appendix C – Base budget approved by Planning, Town & Environment Committee

Appendix D – New proposals in priority order by Planning, Town & Environment Committee.

3.2 In addition, Members will also need to consider its own proposals as shown in Appendices B and C (as amended at the meeting) to the report elsewhere in the Agenda relating to this Committee’s budget.

3.3 The analysis carried out on the 2007/08 budget has identified likely changes to the original base budget. During the year there have been some projects where additional funds have been transferred from reserves to meet additional expenditure, for example on the Carvers’ tennis pavilion. Nonetheless, in overall terms there are a number of small savings throughout the Council’s budgets. In total, these amount to £20,000. This has the effect of reducing the amount to be transferred from the General Reserve, i.e. from £21,260 to £1,140.

3.4 One of the features of this year’s budget is the relatively high level of the budget that has had to be allocated to maintain the Council’s assets. This is largely because those assets have not been fully maintained in previous years. It is however expected that by the end of the next financial year the bulk of this additional maintenance expenditure will have been completed and the Council will be able to return to a more evenly spread maintenance regime.

3.5 Based on the estimated revised budget for 2007/08, it will be possible to transfer a maximum of £29,000 from the General Reserve for the 2008/09 budget to maintain a balance of £150,000 by 31 March 2009. This balance may change in line with any decisions affecting general fund expenditure made at this meeting. It is considered to be financially prudent to maintain the General Fund balance in the range of £150,000 to £200,000 in order to meet potential unexpected expenditure. This is particularly important as tighter controls are exercised over the amounts included in the budget. This reduces the number of underspends on budgets, but also provides less flexibility for additional expenditure during a financial year.

3.6 There is likely to be some contributions made to Provisions during 2008/09 in order to mitigate the effects of expenditure requirements in later years. A separate report will be submitted to this Committee later in this financial year on this subject.

3.7 Appendix E to this report shows a summary of the overall position with respect to the Council’s original and revised budgets for 2007/2008, together with the proposed budget for 2008/2009, subject to this Committee agreeing the proposals now submitted. The base budget for 2008/09 is £285,440. This level includes inflation and known changes to the 2007/08 budget. This base budget level allows Members to include new non recurring expenditure bids in 2008/09 for the benefit of the residents of Ringwood. The level of new bids will be determined by the level of precept that Members recommend to Council.

3.8 Page two of Appendix E also provides indicative Council Tax levels. It assumes that all of the bids shown in Appendix B to the Committee’s own budget papers, and all of the bids approved by the Recreation, Leisure and Open Spaces Committee and the Planning, Town and Environment Committee are approved. Members should note that priority items 3, 4, and 5 in the Recreation, Leisure and Open Spaces Committee new budget proposals for 2008/09 (in Appendix B), would not affect the precept level as they will be financed from H.C.C and provisions. By transferring a maximum of £29,000 from the General Reserve, the Council’s precept requirement would be £400,950, an increase of £80,000 over 2007/08. Any bids that are rejected, increased, or decreased, would affect the total precept requirement.

3.9 The indicative precept level would produce a Council Tax of £74.06, an increase of £14.74 (28p per week), over 2007/08. The Council Tax would be reduced by £1 for each £5,400 of expenditure. Therefore, a reduction of £50,000 in the new bids would result in a Council Tax of about £64.80.

3.10 Members are reminded that the precept for 2007/08 was set at £320,790, after transferring £21,000 from the General Reserve. Raiding reserves, which are finite, cannot be sustained. The proposed precept level assumes the General Reserve will not go below £150,000. If Members agree to this level of transfer, it is unlikely that precept levels from 2009/10 will benefit from further transfers from the General Reserve.

4. Conclusions

4.1 If all the proposed bids of all Committees are approved for 2008/2009, the Council Tax would increase by £14.74 for the year.

4.2 By delaying new expenditure bids, e.g. 50% of the bid of £40,000 for the road extension at the cemetery being put back to 2009/10, the percentage increase in the precept for 2008/09 can be contained within single figures.

4.3 I would also wish to place on record my thanks to Mrs Stannard and Mr Townsend for the work undertaken in preparation of the budget papers. In particular Mr Townsend has been able to interpret all of the Council’s and my various requests to bring us to a position where it is possible to recommend an achievable balanced budget for each Committee and therefore the Council for 2008/2009.

5. Recommendations

5.1 Subject to any amendments that Members may wish to make at this meeting it is recommended that:-

a) The provisional base budget for Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces Committee, as set out in Appendix A to this report, be approved.

b) The provisional priority proposals numbered 1 to 15 in Appendix B (Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces Committee) be accepted and included in the Council’s overall budget for 2008/2009.

c) The provisional base budget for Planning, Town & Environment Committee, as set out in Appendix C to this report, be approved.

d) The provisional priority proposals numbered 1 to 3 in Appendix D (Planning, Town & Environment Committee) be accepted and included in the Council’s overall budget for 2008/2009.

e) The Committee’s own provisional base budget, as set out in Appendix C to the report elsewhere on this Agenda on the Committee’s own budget, be approved.

f) The provisional priority proposals determined at this meeting in Appendix B to the Committee’s own budget report elsewhere on this Agenda, be approved.

5.2 Subject to approval of the recommendations in paragraph 5.1 above, the Committee is requested to make recommendations to Council on the provisional budget and the level of the precept for 2008/09.

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