Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge town councillors have this week approved a ‘standstill budget’ amid ‘challenging times” for the council’s finances.
At a virtual meeting of the Town Council’s Finance and Resources Committee on Monday evening (January 25th), members approved a £707,399 budget for the coming financial year which would make it a “break-even budget not costing the taxpayer extra money.”
Amid the ongoing pandemic, town councillors said that the council is experiencing “difficult” times.
Cllr Phil Harvey added: “It’s a difficult year, and it’s difficult to see where income will come from. We don’t know when The Princess Theatre will be able to re-open, or on what terms it will be able to re-open, so income is particularly problematic for us.”
“It’s interesting to see that we are able to set a precept that is roughly in line with last year’s. We may be able to use a little bit of our reserves when we actually come to the precept setting meeting of the full Town Council because I believe our Band D charge has dropped slightly.”
“It has also been done throughout Sedgemoor and I don’t think we will be an exception to the rule. I think we can overcome that with some limited use of last year’s budget under-spend. It’s a sensible budget and I’m quite happy to support it.”
The council’s Responsible Finance Officer, Sally Jones, said the council has received its Band D figure, adding: “It’s less than last year so even though we are looking at a reduced precept amount, we are going to have to reduce it further for it to be a standstill budget to not incur any further charges to our taxpayers.”
She added: “We have been busy with the Princess Theatre in terms of seeking grants, and Beccy Armory [Business Development Officer] has received confirmation that we will receive ‘closed business lockdown support’ which we weren’t expecting, amounting to £9,000 from Sedgemoor. It would be much more useful to put this into next year’s budget to support the theatre next year. That amount is the same as the amount you need to reduce the overall budget.”
“If you are happy for the £9,000 to go across as earmarked reserves to be used to pay for the rates for The Princess, that would reduce the precept amount to £707,399 which would make it a break-even budget and not cost the taxpayer extra money.”
Cllr Peter Clayton thanked Mrs Jones and the Town Clerk for putting the proposals together and added: “It’s an excellent budget, not one like we have seen before in the history of this council. It’s a standstill budget and I would be very happy to second Cllr Harvey’s proposal that we go ahead and include the £9,000 going towards paying the theatre’s rates.”
A vote took place when councillors gave unanimous support to the proposed standstill budget.
The setting of the Band D precept amount for Burnham and Highbridge taxpayers will be made at a later meeting.
