Hastings Borough Council is facing an unprecedented
financial challenge – not just for the coming year but for the foreseeable
future. We have now published our spending plans for 2013-14 and will be
listening to residents’ and businesses’ comments before agreeing the final
budget on 27th February.
With reductions in funding from central government the
council is facing an 8.8% cut in its revenue spending power for next year – the
maximum reduction the government has set and the largest in the South of England.
Since 2010 the council has seen a 50% real term reduction in
funding from central government once inflation is taken into account (39% in
cash terms).
We have already taken major steps to make ourselves more
efficient – centralising all council staff in just two buildings (Aquila House
and the Town Hall) and sharing some services with other councils.We have saved £1 million a year from reletting our major
contracts jointly with other councils for waste collection and for parks and
gardens. We have re-organised our senior staff structure saving £375,000. And
there was no pay rise for staff again last year. But all of this has only gone
some way to balancing our budget.
To bridge the gap, we are proposing to lose 40 posts (12 of
them currently vacant), increase fees and charges (planning fees
will rise by 15%), reduce our tourism budget by £50,000 and reduce our support
for events by £20,000. We are also proposing to reduce grants to the voluntary sector by 8.8%
in line with the cut in our revenue spending power. Proposed new
arrangements for the housing register could save over £50,000.
Parking charges in the council’s car parks have not risen
for two years but we are proposing to increase them by 10p an hour and then freeze them for two years
again. This would help to fund the continuation of CCTV in the car parks.
For over ten years CCTV monitoring in Hastings has partly
been supported from the surplus made from on-street parking charges. The County
Council has taken back responsibility for on-street parking and handed over
enforcement to a private company NSL. The County Council will no longer allow
on-street parking income to be used for community safety purposes in the town. Parking charges in the Country Park will increase from £1 to
£2 for a full day but with no change to the £25 annual season ticket.
However, there will be no increase in council tax this year
– it last rose four years ago. We will be taking up the government’s offer of a
grant equivalent to a 1% council tax rise and that means a 12-month freeze for
the council taxpayer.
If you have thoughts about our budget proposals feel free to let us know in our draft budget consultation.
