Agenda item

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 (RFO) presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

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 RFO explained that the report set out an update on the in-year position for 2021/22 which had improved since the last update in October 2021. The RFO reported that the Charter Trustees activity had been impacted by Covid and there was a large underspend with a forecast contribution to reserves of £18,000. The RFO indicated that Appendix A to the report detailed the forecast position and set out the proposed budget for 2022/23.  Charter Trustees were advised 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 RFO explained that this change had a positive impact for the base budget of just over £10,000 with the detail of the staffing charge set out in Appendix B 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 RFO reported that figure 1 in the report set out the forecast reserves which by the end of March 2022 would be just under £58,000 and was 39% of the proposed precept for next year.  He explained that it was a healthy level, and it was not proposed to use any reserves for next years budget and therefore the Charter Trustees would be able to deal with any unexpected income or support any activities outside of the base budget.

Charter Trustees were updated on the tax base which was the number of properties that we levy the council tax charge against so the more properties the lower the Band D charge equates to.  The RFO reported that there had been a drop off on the tax base due to Covid 19 but that was now starting to bounce back and in the Bournemouth area the tax base has increased by 2,000 properties.

The RFO explained that in summary the proposed Council Tax precept demand for the Charter Trustees was £147,773 which equates to a Band D charge of £2.31 which was a reduction of 8p or 3.3% compared to last year.  He reported that consideration was given to freezing the charge or reducing it slightly less but considering the issues raised and the reduction in the base budget it was felt justified to propose the above precept.

The Charter Mayor indicated that he was happy to support the budget and welcomed the reduction in the precept.

RESOLVED that

(a)  The proposed budget for 2022/23 as set out in Appendix A to the report be approved

(b)  The council tax requirement and precept of £147,773 be approved

Voting: Unanimous