9 December (Part 2) - Mind the gap
Next Tuesday Bexley Council will approve its balanced budget for next year.
The Covid costs have gone up since the last calculation was made, £5·175 million
instead of £3·517. The Government has agreed to cover some of it, a payment was
made in November and two more are expected. An overspend of £9·225 million is still on the cards.
Last month savings of £6·446 million were proposed, most of it falling on staff
numbers but the proportion has fallen due to savings on contracts and the changes
made by the Chancellor in his Budget Statement.
Reserves have inevitably taken a ten million pound pummeling but I suppose that is what they are there for.
It could have been worse; below is how the reserves reduction has been kept within ten million.
As expected, car parking charges will go up by around 30%, some a little more, some a little less. An annual season
ticket at my nearest car park will go from an outrageous £1,334 to a staggering £1,734, nearly three times what my railway
season ticket to London cost when I first moved to Bexley thinking it was a decent place to live.