Council Meeting
12 October 2023
BUDGET MONITOR 2023/24 Q 2

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 as necessary.

At the end of Q2, the half year, the Council had spent £65,555.46 which
represents 37% of the budget and 44% of the precept.

2. RFF (General)
Only three items of expenditure up to the end of Q2, the recurring Litter
Picker’s salary and the charges for dog and waste bin emptying together with
the provision of new dog bins, which total 38% of the budget.

3. RFF (Car Park)
Toilet cleaning and utility charges comprise the bulk of expenditure.
Maintenance charges will increase in Q3 with work imminent which will raise
expenditure beyond the current 30% of the budget.

4. Playing Fields
Two major projects were completed in Q1 which along with other regular
expenditure resulted in 62% of the budget being utilised in that quarter.

Q2 has been a much quieter quarter with only regular maintenance charges
which have extended the spend to 67% of the budget leaving £8242 for the
second half of the year.

The rent for the land leased from Constable Hall together with the annual
contribution to the services provided have been paid for this financial year.

5. Burial Grounds
The regular expenditure comprises the fixed contract payments to the
groundsman together with petrol and machinery costs. Some fairly extensive
tree works were carried out by contractors in Q2 but an invoice has not yet
been rendered. Additional tree works in the Churchyard are required and both
these items can be accommodated in the Tree Surgery budget.

The budget for this committee is lower than for the other committees because
some expenditure can be offset by cemetery fees. This year’s budget
anticipates cemetery fees of £7,000. However, by the end of Q2, £5322 had
been taken in cemetery fees, which exceeded the regular expenditure for the
half year by £55.20.

6. EBNP review
Contractors for the next phase of the review have now commenced their work
and bills are beginning to be submitted. The expenditure to the end of Q2 is
only 5% of the budget but that is expected to increase significantly as the
review progresses.

7. SPF (Grants)
There were no applications for grant aid in Q1, and only two in Q2 which
resulted in awards of £400 and up to £2,500. There is a substantial balance in
the grant aid budget and local organisations should be encouraged to submit
applications which meet the criteria of the grant aid policy.

8. SPF (General)
On the whole this budget is progressing satisfactorily with expenditure on a
variety of back office and administrative matters. However, there are two
particular items which are having a significant impact on the budget.

Firstly, bank interest rates have increased substantially so rather than
receiving interest of a few pounds per month as we were this time last year,
the monthly payments have been steadily increasing and now exceed £200
per month. The budget anticipated interest of £400 for the year but already
over £1,000 has been received in the first two quarters and looks likely to
exceed £2000 by the year end. This windfall will contribute towards offsetting
any overspends.

Secondly, the Council Contingency budget of £5,000 has already been
exhausted. At the end of Q2, £14632.27 had been posted to the contingency
budget for items which do not have any other appropriate budget head. A
recent payment made was to Babergh DC for its Parish Council election
recharge in the sum of £4731.25 which was not otherwise provided for in the
budget. However, it transpired that the Council had been overcharged and a
refund of some £600 will be made in the first week of Q3.

Despite close monitoring of the contingency budget and monthly reports to
Council, it is inevitable that further call will be made on it, not least because
unbudgeted payments will be required in respect of the Section 146 notices.
Following the Q3 budget monitor, in January 2024 the Strategy Policy and
Finance Committee will take a view upon whether the expenditure can be
borne within the budget or whether reserves will need to be called upon.

9. Other income/expenditure
Income received in Q2 has been the second half year precept payment, which
funds budget expenditure, the regular cleansing grant from Babergh DC and a
grant from Groundwork UK towards consultancy costs for the neighbourhood

plan review. A payment from Babergh DC for Parish CIL was received in Q1
which is ring-fenced in reserves and only available for Parish CIL awards.

Graham White
Parish Clerk
4 October 2023