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Lewes and Eastbourne
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Issue - meetings

General fund budget 2019/20

Meeting: 25/02/2019 - Lewes District Council Full Council (Item 53)

53 General fund revenue budget 2019/20 - Minute Extracts pdf icon PDF 80 KB

Extracts from the minutes of the Cabinet meeting on the 11 February 2019 and Scrutiny Committee held on 7 February 2019.

Additional documents:


Meeting: 11/02/2019 - Lewes District Council Cabinet (Item 60)

60 General fund revenue budget 2019/20, capital programme 2018/19- 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 112 KB

Report of Chief Finance Officer

Lead Cabinet member: Councillor Bill Giles

Additional documents:

Decision:

Recommended to Council: (Budget and policy framework):

 

(1) To approve the general fund budget for 2018/19 (Revised) and 2019/20 (original), set out at appendix 1 to the report including growth and savings proposals for 2019/20 as set out at appendix 2 to the report.

 

(2) To approve an increase in the Council Tax for Lewes District Council of 1.99% resulting in a Band D charge for general expenses of £187.08 for 2019/20.

 

(3) To approve the revised general fund capital programme 2018/22 as set out at appendix 3 to the report.

 

(4) To note the section 151 Officer’s sign off as outlined in paragraph 1.6 of the report.

Minutes:

The Cabinet considered the report of the Chief Finance Officer, detailing the general fund budget proposals for 2019/20 and capital programme 2018/22.

 

Summary of the budget proposals, detailed in the report included overall savings and new income totalling £0.6 million, efficiency savings of £0.4 million and new and increased income totalling £0.2 million.

 

Councillor Nicholson advised that the police precept was increasing by £24 at Band D which was the maximum that they could levy.

 

Councillor Smith added that the Cabinet had added two requests to the budget, connected to the economic impact survey. Firstly to allocate funding from the Economic and Regeneration reserve of up to £50,000 towards the cost of initial scoping studies into the feasibility of easing the bottlenecks and pinch points on A259 between Brighton and Seaford. The study would recommend alleviation measures and build on the existing evidence base for the Local Plan in modelling new infrastructure required as part of potential new housing growth. Match funding would be sought from key partners including the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP), East Sussex County Council, the Greater Brighton Economic Board and the Newhaven Enterprise Board to support the ambition.

 

The second request continued last year’s proposal from Councillor Osborne in relation to the Vote100 anniversary, to set aside a further £10,000 to build on the undoubted success of the events that the Council had hosted to hold additional engagement events to encourage greater participation of women and minority groups in public.

 

Recommended to Council: (Budget and policy framework):

 

(1) To approve the general fund budget for 2018/19 (Revised) and 2019/20 (original), set out at appendix 1 to the report, including growth and savings proposals for 2019/20 as set out at appendix 2 to the report.

 

(2) To approve an increase in the Council Tax for Lewes District Council of 1.99% resulting in a Band D charge for general expenses of £187.08 for 2019/20.

 

(3) To approve the revised general fund capital programme 2018/22 as set out at appendix 3 to the report.

 

(4) To note the section 151 Officer’s sign off as outlined in paragraph 1.6 of the report.

 

Reason for decisions:

 

The Cabinet had to recommend to Full Council the setting of a revenue budget and associated council tax for the forthcoming financial year by law.