Budget Options - Cllr Owen Lister

 For the past few weeks the columns of the Evening Advertiser have been filled with stories re “proposals” re cuts in grants and/or services, in the run up to the Council’s budget setting at the end of February. Many will be concerned about some of the “proposed” cuts, not least those who stand to loose as a result.

 The fact is however, that no cuts have been proposed. What is being examined by both public and Councillors alike are a variety of options. Some are clearly unworkable either by reason of timescale or by reason of their consequences, and all have to be balanced against the burden of Council Tax that people are asked to pay.

 One option is to increase Council Tax sufficiently, so that together with our Revenue Support Grant (from Central Government, and one of the lowest in the country) the Council is able to carry on as at present.

 With the pressures imposed by the recent OFSTED report on the Education service, and by the even more recent draft report following the Joint Revue of the Housing & Social Services department, it is almost inevitable that additional funding will be required to meet the criticisms that have been made, a point that has been noted by the External Auditors who remarked upon the difficult choices which the Council had to make.

 It should not be forgotten moreover, that there are something of the order of 3000 patients awaiting admission to PMH and that more admissions could be effected if bed blocking (now euphemistically termed “delayed transfers”) could be avoided. Funding the purchase of private Nursing and Residential Home beds to prevent these “delayed transfers” already costs the Council over £6.3m, yet the fees paid to the Nursing & Residential Home proprietors looks set to rise by some £1.6m, though this will mean that we are still paying less than all our neighbouring authorities, who can thus compete successfully against us for the inadequate number of beds available.

 Should the Council cut back on its services to the disabled, currently costing over £7.7m, or reduce its expenditure on Care Homes, currently costing £6.4m? Then there are the services to the Mentally Ill, currently costing over £3.1m, Home Care for Adults at over £4.6m and services for Children at over £6.6m.These are all options, though many are options that cannot be exercised because they are statutory obligations.

 
The point to stress is that these and many others are OPTIONS that have to be considered in the light of the Council’s statutory obligations and their individual priority of need. The budget proposals that will be arrived at, will result from a consideration of all the options and balancing these against the perceived willingness of ratepayers to shoulder any additional financial burden, and have yet to be formulated.

 Councillors have the difficult task of arriving at a fair and acceptable balance having carefully considered all the options open to them. Your opinion is most welcome.