Council Meeting
13 July 2023
BUDGET MONITOR 2023/24 Q1

1. All Committees
The Council’s budget for 2023/24 is £175,918.50 of which £148,000 is funded
by the Precept. The remainder will be taken from reserves.

At the end of Q1 the Council had spent 20% of its budget for 2023/24.

2. RFF (General)
Only three items of expenditure in Q1, the Litter Picker’s salary, the annual
charge for dog and waste bin emptying and the provision of new dog bins,
together totalling 23% of the budget.

3. RFF (Car Park)
Toilet cleaning and utility charges comprise the bulk of expenditure.
Maintenance charges will increase in the future quarters as a new contract for
planting and foliage maintenance is entered into. The loss of the previous
contractor has resulted in expenditure being less than anticipated at 14% of
the budget.

4. Playing Fields
Expenditure at 62% of the budget in Q1 is due to the fact that the major items
were completed in this quarter, being play equipment which at £12,000 has
exceeded its budget by £1,000 and the Boule Court project which has been
completed at £190 under budget.

5. Burial Grounds
The major expenditure is the fixed contract payments to the groundsman
together with petrol and machinery costs. Following an expensive year for
mower etc repairs, this year’s costs have been negligible. Cemetery fees
received in Q1 indicate that the assumption of £7,000 for the year, is realistic.

6. EBNP review
Contractors have been appointed for the next phase of the review but do not
start the work until September. The only expenditure in this quarter has been
for minor printing costs for the Traffic Survey.

7. SPF (Grants)
Surprisingly there have been no applications for grant aid in Q1,
leaving the budget allocation of £19,000 intact and available for awards in
subsequent quarters.

8. SPF (General)
This general administration budget has been carefully honed based on
experience and is performing much as expected with Q1 expenditure standing
at 22.8%.

With interest rates rising rapidly, monthly interest on the deposit account is
much greater than anticipated and if that continues throughout the financial
year, which looks likely, the assumption of £400 interest build into the budget
will be exceeded by about four or five times that amount.

This year the SPF Committee is the only one with a contingency fund. The
last sheet of the spreadsheets shows how that has been utilised in Q1 for
expenditure not otherwise covered by budget heads and 32% of that budget
has been utilised in Q1. This will continue to be monitored closely.

9. Other income/expenditure
Income received has been the half year precept payment, which funds budget
expenditure and a Parish CIL payment which is held ring-fenced in reserves.

Graham White
Parish Clerk
5 July 2023