Issue - meetings

The Charter Trustees are required to set their 2022/23 budget, council tax requirement and resultant precept for submission to BCP Council by 31 January 2022.

The Responsible Financial Officer presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Charter Trustees were advised that in light of the previous decision on Future Banking Arrangements the focus of the budget was on Appendix A to the report as there was a differing reserve movement based on which bank provider was selected.

The Charter Trustees were required to set their 2022/23 budget, council tax requirement and resultant precept for submission to BCP Council by 31 January 2022.

The Responsible Financial Officer provided an update on the in-year position for 2021/22 which had improved since the last update in October mainly due to the impact of covid on the activities the Charter Trustees had been able to undertake.  He reported that there had been an underspend of just over £23,000 and Appendix A to the report set out the forecast together with the detailed budget for 2022/23.  The Responsible Financial Officer reported that in preparation for the 2022/23 budget a workshop was held with a number of Charter Trustees in December 2021 to obtain views on key items in the budget.  He reported that one of the key areas was staffing recharges from BCP Council which covered the Head and Deputy Head of Democratic Services, the PAs and Mace Bearers explaining that the cost of these posts was shared across the BCP Council Chairman, the Bournemouth Charter Trustees and the Poole Charter Trustees.  The Charter Trustees were informed that the allocation of staff time had been reviewed and a 50-50 split of 80% would be allocated between each of the Charter Trustees.  This was considered to be a reflection of the time spent supporting each of the Charter Trustees and therefore the revised allocation had been built into the proposed budget for 2022/23. The Responsible Financial Officer reported that this had the implication of increasing the base budget requirement by over £19,000 with the detail of the staffing charge set out at Appendix C to the report. Charter Trustees were informed that another key change was the introduction of a charge for the use of the vehicles, which was not previously in place, £2,000 per annum which was based on the useful life of the vehicle, the expected maintenance costs and the expected usage across the Charter Trustees and the BCP Council Chairman.

The Responsible Financial Officer referred to figure 1 in the report which set out the forecast reserve position which at the end of March 2022 was expected to be in excess of £109,000 which was roughly 88% of the proposed Council Tax precept for next year.  He explained that in 2022/23 there was planned use of over £13,000 of reserves to support the budget.  The Charter Trustees were advised that the reserves at this level could potentially be deemed to be excessive which was due to the lack of activity and the inability to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40