Penyard Ward Report November 2023
Meetings I have attended during the month include some local parish meetings plus others to deal with transport issues, specific cabinet member meetings regarding Shire Hall and the Broad Street Museum, Capital budgets, Revenue budgets, 20mph debates, Scrutiny meetings, Strategic Partnership board with Balfour Beattie, Oh, and dealing with the Southern Relief Road and Bypass, their business cases and funding. The Waste Collection Contract, The Model Farm Enterprise Park, Road Resurfacing Strategy and not forgetting of course speeding in Lea and Gorsley.
There are a number of issues in and around the ward that have/are being delivered, some on the agenda for delivery, some not due to lack of funding in this and future financial years. These include roads, surfaces, potholes, footways, ditches and verges, mud, 20mph and 30mph zones, planning 106 developer agreements, etc. If you feel the need to complain about road issues, drainage, potholes, ditches, etc please go directly to the Council website and get it reported, that is the place that new issues are acted on in the system.
Budgets are the difficult topic.
A summary of the Councils Revenue budget starting with this year’s, 23/24. When these budgets are set by full Council in February, they are deemed deliverable by the senior officer team across all directorates and signed off by the 151 financial director. Apart from delivering the services within the budget it is expected that a Council maintains an unallocated reserve of at least 5%.
The budget over the last couple of years has overspent and relied on previous reserves to get through. The current budget is overspent and won’t balance and will rely on what few reserves are left, leaving the future years with a choice – more income, or more efficient, or cuts in delivery. I don’t believe this year’s budget was ever going to balance. Known issues and pressures at the time particularly in Children and Wellbeing were always going to exceed the forecast. Whilst this year’s budget is currently £13.5 million adrift it is likely to require a significant figure from reserves at the year end. This is not just a Herefordshire problem as it applies to nearly every Council, and many are in a worse position than us. The cost of care delivery across Children and Community Wellbeing directorates is adding further pressures and constantly impacts the money available in Economy and place, which of course means amongst other things, Road repairs and maintenance, so the latest notification of extra funding on Friday for roads and infrastructure from HS2 cancellation is good news.
The headline forecast figures for you for the 24/25 budget.
Expected Council Income £201 million
Expected Council Expenditure £220 million
Leaving Just over £19m to save for next year to balance the books and that includes the max increase in Council tax rates!