£7m council underspend could ease cuts pain, says Flear
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Councillor David Flear says the budget saving will be a one-off.
A CAITHNESS councillor said a projected underspend of almost £7 million in the local authority budget could be used to help ease some of the pain of council cuts.
But Landward Caithness representative David Flear stressed the saving would be a one-off and would not affect the cuts of £58m which have to be made by the local authority over a three-year period.
He was speaking after councillors were told prudent financial management by budget holders is set to result in the council coming in under budget in 2010/11 by almost £7m.
A report to the resources committee on Wednesday (June 8) will give members a near-final position on the revenue budget and states work on closing the final accounts is ongoing, with the final position for 2010
Councillor Carolyn Wilson, chairwoman of the resources committee, said the projected underspend will place the council in a strong position to meet the increasing funding pressures it faces.
She stated: “This is really good news for the council and is a tribute to the rigorous and effective financial management of our revenue budget by both members and services. There are some pretty tough times ahead and the underspend gives us the scope to better meet the pressures that we will inevitably face and protect frontline services.
“The underspend will increase our balances and therefore put us in a much stronger position to deal with any one-off costs or emergencies that may arise in future. Balances are important to give the council capacity to deal with unplanned expenditure such as severe weather events.”
