Stone Council to include Covid contingency in new budget
Stone community leaders have started considering their town council budget for next year – which is set to include contingency measures to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on services.
Markets and community centres are just two of the facilities provided by Stone Town Council to residents.
But restrictions on public gatherings and the closure of non-essential retail services during two national lockdowns have meant that some services have been unable to operate as they normally would.
The council has also been unable to stage events this year such as the Christmas lights switch on and a planned VE Day celebration to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
The effects of the pandemic are expected to last into 2021 – and are being taken into account as Stone Town Council begins its budget-setting process for 2021/22.
At this month’s general purposes committee members of each sub-committee were asked to consider their financial needs for the next three years and report back to the January meeting with their budget proposals.
They were also presented with a “standstill” budget, which sets out council’s current and forecast future financial position if services continue at their current level.
Council clerk Les Trigg said: “This stage of the process is to look at the cost of continuing to do everything the council currently does.
“The biggest challenge for the budget this year is the impact of the ongoing pandemic. In terms of making the budget easier to understand I’ve prepared the figures on the basis of a return to a post-lockdown situation from December and a return to everything back to normal from April.
“I realise that is pretty optimistic, so I’ve also provided a contingency that will allow for those targets not being met. The contingency currently provided in these figures will allow for a slower recovery, but effectively a return to normal from about next summer.
“When it comes to setting the budget that’s one of the things you would have to look at in some detail and decide how much money you want to provide in that contingency. Hopefully by then we will have a lot more information than we do now about the ongoing future position.”
An underspend of £87,845 is currently forecast for the 2020/21 budget, a report said.
It added: “This is largely due to delays in the Heritage Centre project, the renewal of Walton Christmas lights and the refurbishment of the war memorial. Funding has been carried forward to meet the costs of these projects when they are now likely to occur.”
