The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Working groups have been established to find £1.6m of savings as South Holland District Council set its budget for the next financial year.
It includes a maximum permitted five per cent increase in council tax bills.
Despite the government finding some funding for authorities with drainage boards, the council was told 92 per cent of the average £6.01 increase per household would cover the increase of their costs.
“These pressures have meant we have no choice but to identify efficiencies and opportunities to do things differently,” Coun Paul Redgate, the portfolio holder for finance, told the council. “This does not mean cutting services but reshaping and transforming them to be more efficient, providing value for money for our council tax payers.
“We are determined as a council to tackle these issues head on so we are not consistently going from one financial cliff edge to another.
“In order to support the processes we have identified, an efficiency plan has been established.
“The leader has already established a working group to achieve the efficiencies we have identified.
“I’m pleased to add we’re not using reserves to support our revenue account and will use them sparingly over the next years and contribute to them where possible.”
Coun Redgate (pictured) told the council the South and East Lincolnshire Local Councils Partnership was on track to provide £42m savings due to shared services.
Responding to a question on government funding he said: “Yes we’re being massively underfunded by government. Lincolnshire as a whole is. We need to look at that and our MPs work hard fighting our corner.
“The working party won’t be a talking shop. We have key aspects we need to deliver on and I will be looking at the efficiencies every single month.
“We need to be transparent and make some hard decisions. We may need to make them to avoid the nastier side of bankruptcy.
“Our officers won’t let that happen anyway.
“We are a well run council. We make good decisions for our residents.
“We don’t make knee-jerk decisions and we’re not like some investing in large corporate projects that then see them fail.
“With Welland Homes we have one of the best run companies inside a local authority that exists.”
He also said that by this time next year the authority would press for a long term solution of the issue of funding drainage boards.
Leader of the council Nick Worth said: “Right across this country a lot of councils are struggling, but this is not one of them.
“That’s thanks to the finance team, those that found the savings and those who have put together the transformation process and looking at how we can do things differently.”
Coun Worth also said it seemed ‘almost unfair’ the council was capped at rising tax five per cent while some parish councils were raising by ‘£10-£30’.
Bun Coun Bryan Alcock called that unfair.
“We’ve spoke often about parish council being able to take on projects forced on them, in some cases, outside of their control and partly because of massive housing increases,” he said. “Before becoming too critical we need to understand their needs and aspirations more and the problems they operate on.”
Other things passed in the meeting included:
l A 7.7 per cent increase in council house rent.
l An estimated 3.5 per cent increase in pay of employees in line with nationally set guidance.
l An increase on councillors allowances. See page seven for more.
