Lancaster City Council sets its revenue budget for 2009/10
Lancaster City Council has set its revenue budget for 2009/10.
On March 4 Council set the budget at £23.999 million. In doing so Council accepted many of the recommendations prepared by Cabinet but also made a number of changes.
Lancaster City Council has set its revenue budget for 2009/10.
On March 4 Council set the budget at £23.999 million. In doing so Council accepted many of the recommendations prepared by Cabinet but also made a number of changes.
These changes included:
* Keeping The Dome in Morecambe open for the 2009/10 season.
* Keeping open all but two toilets. The only toilets to close will be at the end of Regent Road and on the promenade outside The Dome in Morecambe.
* Retaining the Catch the Wind kite festival and Sandcastle Festival instead of the Lancaster Jazz Festival which will not now take place in 2009.
* Removing the £20,000 cut to Lancaster and Morecambe Citizens Advice Bureaux in 2009/10. There will therefore be no cuts to the funding they receive next year and will be given a grant totalling £182,800.
* Restoring £20,000 of the £40,000 reduction to The Dukes in Lancaster. The theatre will now receive £147,800 instead of the previously proposed £127,800.
Coun Abbott Bryning, Leader of Lancaster City Council, said: “In common with other public bodies we were faced with tough choices when setting our budget.
“The recession has impacted heavily on our finances and because we have less money coming in we have less to spend.
“Inevitably this has meant that some services we may had wanted to maintain or expand have had to be scaled back or ended completely.
“These choices have had to make to balance our books and ensure we provide a set of good quality core services which can continue to operate effectively.”
Council has previously set next year’s increase in Council Tax at 4%. This means that from April 2009 Lancaster City Council’s proportion of Council Tax will be around £3.56 a week on average.
The city council retains around 13% of the total Council Tax bill with the remainder going to Lancashire County Council (74%) Lancashire Police Authority (9%) and Lancashire Combined Fire Authority (4%).
These authorities have increased their precepts as follows:
Lancashire County Council: 2.9%
Lancashire Police Authority: 4.5%
Lancashire Combined Fire Authority: 3.74%
In addition, residents living in parished areas pay a precept to their parish council.
Excluding Parish precepts the overall basic Band D increase in Council Tax will be 3.22%.
Date Updated: 19/03/09