Council Meeting
9 January 2025
BUDGET MONITOR 202 4/25 Q3

1. All Committees
The Council’s budget for 2024/25 was £206,048.50 of which £148,000 was
funded by the Precept, the remainder to be taken from reserves as necessary.
At the end of Q3 the Council had spent £101,600.10 which represents 68.6%
of the precept and 49.3% of the budget.

2. Burial Grounds
At the end of Q3, the Burial Grounds Committee had spent 74% of its budget
of £10,635.00 with £2724.04 remaining for Q4. This is a satisfactory rate of
progress and suggests the budget is likely to break even at the year end if
there are no unforeseen emergencies. Cemetery fees are likely to achieve the
£10,000 anticipated in the budget.

3. EBNP review
The Neighbourhood Plan Review has been progressing and the draft plan will
be published for public consultation in Q1 of the 2025/26 financial year. This
has been achieved with the help of consultants who have yet to submit
invoices for their work. Consequently, whilst the Committee has only spent
£4683.80 of its budget of £28,000, significant expenditure is anticipated in Q4
and the extent of this will be reported in the Q4 budget monitor report.

4. Playing Fields
The Playing Fields Committee has spent £15,113 (38.5%) of its budget of
£39,200 by the end of Q3. There are several large items of expenditure
expected in Q4, but even with these, the budget is likely to be underspent at
the year end.

5. RFF (General)
The committee spent £7819.26 (49.8%) by the end of Q3. It has funded litter
picking, the emptying of dog and litter bins and the purchase of additional
bins. It is unlikely that the balance of the budget will be spent in its entirety by
the year end.

6. RFF (Car Park)
£8,121.06 (54.5%) of the budget was spent by the end of Q3 though this
would have exceeded 60% had an outstanding maintenance bill been
rendered in a timely manner. Toilet cleaning, utility charges and various works
of maintenance are the purposes for which this budget is used.

7. SPF (General)
The SPF committee which is responsible for the Council’s administrative
functions has managed this budget carefully and in spending £42,042.83
(67.7%) by the end of Q3, it is on target to break even by the year end, even
with anticipated additional charges for office rent and service charges for the
new website.
Although the budget for council contingencies has been exceeded by
£4391.01 by the end of Q3, this can be accommodated within the overall
budget, not least by bank interest exceeding whole year expectation by
£3139.78 at the end of Q3.
8. SPF (Grants)
The grant fund of £15,000 for 2024/25 has been overspent by £61.60 and this
together with any other grants awarded in Q4 will be easily covered by
underspends in other budgets at the year end. The overspend has occurred
due to a large award made at the end of the previous financial year but not
paid until the current year, which has distorted this year’s budget.
9. Young People Committee
Although only £333.37 had been spend from the budget of £20,000 by the
end of Q3, the Committee is about to commission contractors to undertake
the delivery of the committee’s youth work programme and expenditure upon
this and other embryonic projects will the be subject of future budget monitor
reports.

10. Other income/expenditure
In the course of the financial year to the end of Q3, the Council has received
income which is outside the budget amounting to £712,581.09. This
comprises the precent (£148,000), Neighbourhood CIL (£552,033.69) and
cleansing and groundwork grants (£12,547.40).

Additionally it has made payments outside the budget from reserves
amounting to £52,537.20, comprising S146 notice costs £29,517.97, Broom
Knoll proxy £878.70, PC Tennis Club Project £12,297.19, PC Bowls Club
Project £4,043.34, Dedham Vale JR costs fund £5,000 and CIL awards of
£9,028.90,

Graham White
Parish Clerk
2 January 2025