Issue - meetings

To consider the Spalding Special Expenses outturn position for the financial year 2024-25 (report of the Interim Director of Finance (S151) to follow)

The Chairman introduced the Chief Finance Officer to present the Spalding Special Expenses Q4 report for 2024-25.

The Chief Finance Officer provided a summary to the Spalding Town Forum members detailing the actual outturn against budget for 2024-25.

The budget of £246,350 for 2024-25 was approved by Full Council on the 29 February 2024.

• The outturn position for year-end 2025, as of 31 March 2025 was £192,366 a predicted underspend of £53,984.
• Any savings realised at year end would be transferred to the earmarked Spalding Special Account Reserve and would be approved as part of the 2024-25 outturn report submitted to Full Council.

Service areas included;

• Employees – The employment related costs detailed within the report included salaries, NI and pension costs, and factored in any incremental pay progression and national pay awards.
• This category incorporated additional agency staff costs.
• Employee costs were in alignment with the budget plan.

• Income – This category encompassed rents, hire fees and additional fees and charges.
• Quarter 4 included a modest overachievement of £1000 due to supplementary rental income for Allotments and a significant increase of cemetery revenue of £18,000, alongside additional recharges for Ayscoughfee Leisure and Halley Stewart.

• Premises – Premises costs comprised of building maintenance and repairs, utilities, insurance, and grounds maintenance.
• Overall premises costs came in under budget, a saving of £19,000 at quarter 4.
• Primarily the savings were from reduced requirements for maintenance at the cemetery (£7,000) alongside savings at Monkshouse (£6,000), this was attributed by a transfer of budget from Spalding Special Recreation area to subsidise additional tree maintenance costs.

• Supplies and Services – This category included furniture and equipment, materials and consumables, professional contractor fees and licence fees.
• Quarter 4 report showed a budget saving £12,000, which was due to a transfer of budget to Spalding Special Expenses, that was superfluous.

• Transport – This category covered transport running costs, inclusive of fuel and tyre costs.
• Transport costs were projected to match budget.

• Support Services – Support Services were recharge costs for support provided by Finance, Democratic Services and Asset Management. Full year expenditure was in line with the budgeted forecast.

• Transfer Payments – This category housed the cost of grants and contributions paid to outside bodies. These remunerations were in line with the budget.

Any savings would be transferred to the earmarked Spalding Special Account Reserve. Reserves were designed to cushion the impact of unexpected events or emergencies or to finance one-off investments. Reserves were only replenished by contributions made from the revenue budget, and therefore the use of reserves should be carefully planned.

Use of reserves could be approved under delegated authority by the Section 151 Officer up to the value of £75,000, use above this threshold would need to be approved by Cabinet.

The Chief Finance Officer enquired if the members had any questions.

The Chairman highlighted £44,900 in the Spalding Recreational Premises and asked the Chief Finance Officer what this expense related to.

• The Chief Finance Officer responded that she did not have the information  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4