Amendment to be moved by Councillor Martin and seconded by Councillor Southwell

Delete all but the final sentence of paragraph 16 [Revenue Budget 2009/10] of the Report of Cabinet and replace it with

“For the year ended 31st March 2010;

a)      The Budget requirement for the County Council be £411,380,426

b)      The County Council agrees a basic council tax at Band D of £1201.84

(The average decrease in the level of the council tax for the year ended 31st March 2010 is 1.7% ranging from a nil change to a reduction of 5.5%)”

 

And make any necessary consequential changes to the detailed calculations that follow in later paragraphs

Notes: The reduction in the Budget Requirement is £8,774,384 which is to be funded from a selection of appropriate so-called earmarked reserves (Insurance Reserve, Regeneration & Communities Reserve, Special Projects Reserve and Cabinet Reserve)

The Insurance Reserve (£9.8M) is required but not at the current level which is substantially more than necessary.

The Regeneration & Communities Reserve (£2M) and, Special Projects Reserve (£3M) have been in place for several years and there are no clear plans for their use.

The Cabinet Reserve (£6.3M) is what remains from the Newcastle Airport dividend. Not all of this is required although about £2M must be retained for a specified purpose.

The following table shows the effect of our proposals in the various districts

	£	%
Chester-le-Street	-3.69	-0.3
Derwentside	-69.50	-5.5
Durham City	-9.14	-0.8
Easington	0.00	0.0
Sedgefield	-12.54	-1.0
Teesdale	-23.70	-1.9
Wear Valley	-24.32	-2.0

 

As with the Labour proposal, reserves will be replenished from planned future savings, albeit over a longer period.

None of this touches the general reserve which is more than adequate to cover for contingencies although the Labour budget also includes £1.6m for contingencies.