Council Income to Pay for Services & Facilities

Finance Report by the Town Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer to the Annual Parish Assembly on 26 April 2016

Introduction

Services to the Community:

Costessey TC provides many local services: in Costessey we own around 75 acres of open spaces including woodlands, playing fields and play parks with play equipment. We provide grit bins, litter bins, dog bins and benches and maintain bus shelters. We are the local burial authority and maintain the cemetery in Longwater Lane andthe closed churchyard at St Edmund’s. We own and maintain Breckland Hall, the Owen Barnes Room, and halls and meeting rooms at the Costessey Centre and West Costessey Hall, so residentsnow enjoy modern public facilities throughout Costessey. We provide substantially more services and facilities than many surrounding parishes and have tenmembers of staff, some part-time. Our 16 councillors are unpaid volunteers and do not receive allowances.

Council Income to Pay for Services & Facilities:

However, our income is limited and mainly comes from hall & pitch hire,burial fees, and we keep33% of the Parochial Charity’s allotment rentsin return for administering their allotments. In general community halls do not cover their costs and our halls are no exception. The shortfallbetween our income and expenditure is made up by the Precept,the amount collected through Council Tax. This is divided by the tax base (not the number of properties) and shown averaged out at Band Das a benchmark.

End of year 2015-16

Overall the Council has remained in budget during the year to the tune of about £51,000. The accountants will be finalising the accounts for the end of year closedown on 4 May. The accounts will then be audited by our internally appointed auditors and subsequently by Mazars, the externally appointed auditors.

Land acquisition:

Although we transferred the sum agreed with South Norfolk Council to our solicitorsfor the acquisition of various parcels of land, remedial work was required on some play equipment, which means that the transaction will not complete until the 2016-17 financial year.

West Costessey Hall:

The hall was funded by the sale of the Youth Centre in Breckland Road and the Parish Rooms in Townhouse Road, S106 developers’ contributions via the planning process,plus a substantial amount from our Major Projects Earmarked Reserves. The final costs have not yet been calculated as several snagging issues are still to be resolved, so half the retention is still to pay after the official snagging has been completed.

Breckland Park:

We have started the upgrade of play facilities: vandalism meant that we replaced a slide unit with a nest swing and we have installed an accessible roundabout in the younger children’s play area with sharks’ fin wetpour. We planto do more, new equipment will be phased in as funds allow.

Staff:

As Council’s business increases year on year all our staff are extremely busy in dealing with the work created by hiring out rooms and pitches, co-ordinating burial arrangements and keeping abreast of the finances and maintaining our grounds. We have noticed a substantial rise in hall hires this last year; the office workload has certainly increased and we have increased staff hours to cope with this. My thanks go to all our staff for their hard work and dedication.

Budget Requirements for 2016-17(Please see budget table overleaf)

Every Autumn the Council looks at its previous year’s income & expenditure, the expected year-end totals and future commitments, and sets the following year’s budget. The Council is required to budget realistically and would be criticised by the auditors if it did not do so. Since 2014Costessey has been able to hold the Band D rate at the same level of£110.41 and I am delighted to report a 0% increase in Costessey’s share of Council Taxfor 2016-17.

Currently central government provides a Precept Support Grant via the District Council. This followedthe slashing of the tax base four years ago year as an unwelcome and perhaps unforeseen effect of changing the Council Tax Benefit payments system. South Norfolk passes on money to its parishes, but the amount from central government is reduced year on year and is likely to be withdrawn altogether in future. This will certainly have a knock-on effect on Council Tax in the coming years.

As Government devolves more functions, Councils are expected to take on responsibility for providing more services and facilities without being given any extra funds. In fact Costessey Town Council took over providing a youth service in the shape of the Cossey Posse and the QUBE when Norfolk CC pulled the service several years ago following central government cuts, and the trend for devolving services with no accompanying funds is likely to continue.

Every yearCouncil sets its priorities and reviews its4 year plan, so it can budget accordingly. The Council sets money aside into ear-marked reserves to cover major capital projects in addition to its general reserve. My able Deputy, Nigel Bailey, seeks funding for projects wherever he can, so that facilities are improved without costs over-burdening our community.

This financial year we hope to start the extension to the cemetery in Longwater Lane for natural burials, continue the refurbishment of the younger children’s play area in Breckland Park, replace decrepitnotice boards, upgrade the website,upgrade the MUGA to include Street Snooker, possibly improve Greenhills Woods, take on extra land and play areas, andwork towards the Local Council Award Quality Gold accreditation.

Revenue costs have been reduced in this year’s budget forBreckland Hall,the Costessey Centre, Longwater Lane Recreation Ground and other open spaces. The Council budgets realistically and hopes to be able to invest sensibly to maximise interest and increase income, though interest rates are still pitifully low.

Along with most other employers Council will suffer increased NICs and pension costs; an extra 3.4% has to be found for NICs and an extra 0.5% for Council’s pension contribution costs. These are additional costs which are totally outside the Council’s control.

As the Council continues to take on more premises, projects and tasks to provide better facilities for its growing population, the Council will need more staff and equipment to look after the extra grounds, play areas and halls. Costessey Town Council will budget for theseand unforeseen eventualities and will keep any future increases in Band D rate to a minimum.

Hilary Elias, 26 April 2016.