SLDC Agrees £15m Budget

2 March 2010

A rise of only 2.84 per cent, lower than last year’s 2.9% per cent rise and the lowest council tax increase in the Council’s history, has been achieved by South Lakeland District Council.  It has agreed a £15.034 million budget for 2010/11.

Council bosses say it is important that the budget should be put into context against the wider UK economic situation, where the UK economic outlook remains ‘very uncertain and unclear’.

The 2.84 per cent council tax increase will result in an annual charge of only £175.63 for South Lakeland District Council’s portion of the band D tax bill, which is equivalent to £3.38 per week.

The balanced budget has been achieved despite a difficult year for the council financially as it responded to the twin challenges of increasing costs and falling income in a number of areas.

Councillor Andy Shine, portfolio holder for Resources, reflected on the council’s achievements on service improvements over the past year. Improvements included a special housing and council tax benefit scheme for flood victims and an on-line calculator so residents can see if they qualify for housing or council tax benefit. In addition, projects delivered across the District were: new signage for Kendal; built 400 new affordable houses, which beats the target of 370 set for March 2011; achievement of environmental Green Flag award for the gardens at Park Road in Grange over Sands; restored and re-opened the historic limekiln in Kendal; hosted the second Great North Swim and carried out food safety training for 60 food businesses.

Cllr Shine said, “We can look back on 2009/10 with a great deal of satisfaction on a significant year in the Council’s history. The budget adopted is predominantly a transitional budget. We have re-tendered our waste and recycling service together with our grounds maintenance contract. We have successfully launched the Local Area Partnership and started to work on them. Local residents will have a far greater opportunity to determine how services are delivered in their localities than ever before. Most significantly, we have completely restructured the Council and as a consequence we have achieved the £1.3m savings target for 2010/11, proving that we have made some tough decisions and seen them through.”

The approved budget includes some growth for the coming year - £396k has been set aside for service development.

Cllr Shine concluded, “Every care has been taken to ensure the estimates for planned savings for 2010/11 are achievable. The restructure will deliver savings of £750k on staffing costs; the new refuse collection contract will deliver savings of £224k per annum; the grounds maintenance contract will save £288k per annum; other corporate savings of £472k have also been identified giving total savings in excess of £1.7m, offset by pressures as set out in the budget report.”

At the Council meeting, the Leader of the Opposition proposed an alternative budget, but after extensive debate it was rejected.