Published on:
08
February 2013
Clackmannanshire Council announced today that it is freezing council tax for the sixth year maintaining bills at 2007/08 levels.
The Council's revenue expenditure will be £115.306 million over the year ahead and the Council anticipates starting the year with uncommitted revenue reserves of £7.4 million. Savings of £3.944 million have been identified through a package of efficiency measures.
A seven year capital expenditure budget of £64 million was also agreed at today's Special Council meeting. Capital expenditure pays for permanent improvements such as new buildings and refurbishment. Councillors agreed to develop the capital programme up to 2019/20 to provide greater visibility and transparency of the Council's financial commitments.
Council Leader Gary Womersley said: "I am delighted to say that we are delivering a wide-range of initiatives that I believe will make a difference to the people of Clackmannanshire. We have less money, but we are going to deliver more, while also setting down solid foundations for the medium and long term.
"This budget does include significant savings and, where appropriate, consultation on the implementation of specific savings will continue with relevant parties, service users and communities. As part of these consultation arrangements, I have also asked management of the Council to work with Trade Union representatives to agree a recruitment protocol."
Councillor Womersley also announced the proposal to adopt the Local Authority Mortgage Scheme in Clackmannanshire. The scheme will help local first time buyers access affordable housing. The Council will deposit £3million to establish an indemnity guarantee with the mortgage provider to support the scheme.
The budget also included a plan to enhance the early support and intervention provided in nurseries. The plan is the initial step towards achieving a doubling of nursery teachers. Paid for school meals will remain at the same price as they have done for the last nine years.
"We are delivering all these improvements while continuing to meet our SOA commitments of a council tax freeze and guarantees on teacher numbers and places for probationary teachers," added Councillor Womersley. "The whole budget is underpinned by prudence and good financial stewardship, so we will also be making these increased investment while improving our levels of reserves and decreasing this Council's debt levels."
The seven year capital programme establishes the potential for up to £78.8 million of investment . The Council has previously approved projects totalling £28.2 million of this sum. The budget provided an additional £18.1 million of recurrent investment in a number of areas and £17.252 million worth of new projects.
The approved capital programme includes a £7.5 million investment over the next seven years in business improvements and settlement reviews of each local community. This will assist the Council in delivering on its new business improvement project, Making Clackmannanshire Better, which was launched today with the announcement of a pilot for Tullibody.
Significant additional funding of £5.25 million has been allocated to tackle a backlog of road repairs and for new street lights.
£1 million has been allocated up to 2019/20 for the village and small town centre initiative which will be targeted at improving main streets across the area.
£300,000 is to be spent over three years to improve broadband coverage in Clackmannanshire and £100,000 has been allocated to facilitate lands improvements and flood mitigation works.
A new streetscape programme is to be established which will focus on environmental improvements to main residential areas and other busy areas with a budget of £875,000.
The capital programme also retains financial flexibility of £15.2 million to fund new projects in the future.
Council Leader Gary Womersley, said: "We aim to sustain our existing strategy of prudence, in that any receipts realised are set aside and used to reduce historic debt or reduce the need for future borrowing. This strategy has delivered a reduction in external debt of £5.9 million over the past 18 months.
"For a long time there has been a lack of investment in our buildings and roads, as well as in important areas like IT. I intend to reverse that trend today with this capital programme which targets these important areas, while remaining prudent and realistic."