Council Meeting
11 April 2024
BUDGET MONITOR 2023/24 Q 1-4

1. All Committees
The Council’s budget for 2023/24 was £175,918.50 of which £148,000 was
funded by the Precept. The remainder to be taken from reserves as
necessary. At the end of the financial year the Council had spent £148,355.38
which represents 100.2% of the precept and 84.3% of the budget. Reserves
of £355.38 have been used in addition to the precept to balance the budget at
the end of the financial year.

2. RFF (General)
The committee spent £11,005.81 (74%) of its budget by the end of Q4, an
underspend of £3,944.19. The Litter Picker’s salary had exceeded the budget
provision as a result of the national pay award for 2023/24 but the overspend
of £823 was easily accommodated within the committee budget as all other
budget heads were underspent.

3. RFF (Car Park)
£12,887.45 (72%) of the budget was spent during the 2023/24 financial year.
An outstanding maintenance bill had not been rendered by the year end which
would have increased the spend. The major underspend was £3,200 for a
landscaping project which was not realised. The Utilities budget head was
underspent by £1,085 as a result of cheaper energy costs during 2023/24.
Other budget heads were on target with minor underspends.

4. Playing Fields
Having spent some 62% of its budget on projects in Q1, the Committee was
careful to manage expenditure throughout the remaining three quarters and
by the year end had spent £22,991.36 (92%) of its budget of £24,950. Three
budget heads totalling £3,500 were not utilised during the year comprising two
small projects together with no requirement for tree surgery. Play equipment
expenditure of £14,086.22 was an overspend of £3086.22 as a result of a
major repair to the zip wire and various other works identified in the safety
inspections. This was accommodated within the committee’s overall budget as
a result of the underspends referred to.

5. Burial Grounds
The Burial Grounds budget of £10,345 was overspent by £3285 as a result of
payments totalling £10,165 for the digitisation of burial records project. It had
been anticipated that this would be covered by cemetery fees if those fees
were maintained at the same level as in the previous two quarters. However,
in Q4, the level of fees dropped significantly and proved to be insufficient to

cover the costs of the project. Whilst there were savings in some budget
heads (machinery and tree surgery) these were not enough to balance the
budget. Even so, the overspend can be covered by underspends in other
committees whereby the Council’s overall budget is not exceeded.

6. EBNP review
Contractors for the next phase of the review commenced their work in the
second half of the financial year and will continue into the next financial year.
Consequently, whilst bills to date have been discharged these are not for the
entirety of the project and the £12,319 which has been spent comprises only
41% of the budget. Provision has been made in the budget for 2024/25 to pay
the remaining professional fees to enable the draft review plan to be
published by the end of the year or thereabouts.

7. SPF (Grants)
The grant fund of £19,000 for 2023/24 included some £11,000 to support cost
of living projects. However, no applications for such grants have been made
and the expenditure of £7,421.60 is in line with the £8,000 previously provided
for general grant aid.

8. SPF (General)
This has proved to be a difficult year for the committee responsible for the
Council’s administrative functions. In total ten budget heads have been
exceeded, mainly by small amounts, which reflects rising prices in various
categories of services and provision. The ten budget heads are Insurances,
subscriptions, internal and external audit fees, stationery, the parish office,
computer support, website development and contingencies.
As reported in Q3, the Council Contingency fund of £5,000 had already been
exceeded by that time and indeed reached the anticipated level, at £20,388.
That overspend could not be recovered from other savings in committee
budget heads and accordingly the committee spent £67,587 against a budget
of £58,260, an overspend of £9327. The overspend, which was anticipated
and managed, can be covered by underspends in other committees whereby
the Council’s overall budget is not exceeded.
Bank interest provided an unexpected bonus as interest rates increased from
near zero. The committee anticipated £400 interest which was in the
committee’s budget to offset expenditure, but this turned out to be £5082, a
windfall which enabled the committee overspend to remain manageable.
The SPF Committee oversees the Council’s CIL fund and considers any
applications for awards. At the commencement of the financial year the
Council held £20,581.68 and in October 2023 a payment of £70,595.52 was
received from Babergh DC comprising the Parish Council’s element of the first
payment by the developers of the Heath Road development. This brought up
the balance of the Council’s CIL fund to £91,177.20. In order to ring-fence the
CIL fund physically as well as in accounting terms, a new account was opened

with Cambridge Building Society and that balance (rounded up to £91,178)
was deposited and may be accessed only for the addition of new CIL funds
and for payment of awards made by the Council.
There were no applications for grant aid and no awards in 2023/24.
9. Other income/expenditure
In the course of the financial year the Council has received various sums as
shown on the attached spreadsheet which cover the precept, CIL funding,
Grants, and a small grant from Babergh DC which the Parish Council holds to
the order of the Friends of Broom Knoll. In total these sums amounts to
£235,785.

Graham White
Parish Clerk
3 April 2024