“Perhaps the most striking thing you see when you go about Castle Point at the moment is the huge tent that currently sits on top of Waterside Farm Sports Centre. The tent is to keep out the elements while the builders reconstruct the roof as part of the £4.5 million refurbishment programme that is due to complete this summer. The opening of the improved leisure and sports centre will put a suitable cap on a year that saw the Olympics, watched by the whole world, come to Castle Point.

The last few years have seen a succession of improvements to community infrastructure. All of the children’s playgrounds were improved at an average cost of over £150,000 each. Runnymede swimming pool reopened after a major refurbishment programme and is now well used. The major community halls at The Paddocks and Runnymede were renovated to reverse years of neglect.

None of these things can happen without money and only the strong financial position of Castle Point Council prevented those facilities from closing as lack of investment made them unsafe.

The Council meeting to agree the annual budget for 2013/14 was held on 20 February, but the budget setting process starts many months before then. Although the figures change from year to year, our principles for managing the finances remain the same. We set a balanced budget, only spending what we have as income. We keep a prudent level of reserves for emergencies. We scrutinise every bit of spending to see that we get good value for money for your Council Tax. And we cap any rises to inflation or less. Keeping to those principles, in often difficult circumstances, has kept the Council’s finances in a healthy position and enabled us to undertake projects such as Waterside Farm.

I do not need to remind you that the national economy remains in a weak position, with very little signs of a return to growth. This naturally means that the Government has less money to go round. All councils across the country have seen their funding fall. Two years ago our funding was reduced by £1.6million. For the next financial  year our income from Government will reduce by £470,000 and the following year by £622,000 a cumulative further reduction of over £1 million.For two years we have not increased Council Tax at all, but this year the plans include a rise of £4.50 or 1.96% for a band D home, still well below the rate of inflation. We do this reluctantly, but it would not be prudent financial management to do otherwise and risk damaging council services.

Much of the work for this year’s budget was to find savings to reflect the reduced income. I am happy to say we have done that without affecting the level of service that the Council provides to residents.  And our services continue to be graded some of the best in the country. We renegotiated contracts to increase income from recycling by £55,000. We reduced our energy and other utility bills by £60,000.

We squeezed small amounts out of all budget areas, which added up to £153,000. We maintained the reduction of Councillors allowances by £49,000. And we pay our auditors £63,000 less. We have a continuing rolling programme of looking at each area of Council activity to see where savings can be made.

Castle Point Council has some things it must do by law such as run elections, sweep the streets, collect the refuse, maintain an emergency planning section, process planning applications and administer housing services. There are some things we choose to do because you tell us you want them. Thus we provide the sports and leisure services, maintain parks and open spaces and provide public toilets. Our detailed spending plans are available on the Council.

However, to give you a flavour, we will spend £1.2 million on the refuse and recycling service, £1.1 on street cleaning and other street services, £990,000 on parks and open spaces (of which there are many in Castle Point) and £1.6 million on the leisure centres and community halls. Overall the total is £11.9 million.

We believe we give good value for money for your Council Tax and run the Council’s finances properly and fairly. And when the tent finally comes off the roof at Waterside Farm Leisure Centre, I hope you will go and see what can be achieved by good financial management and  prudent budget setting.

Cllr Jeffrey Stanley

Deputy Leader Castle Point Borough Council

Cabinet member for Policy and Resources.”