First Rother Alliance budget passed at district council

On Monday (February 24), Rother District Council agreed its annual budget for the forthcoming financial year, which included proposals to increase council tax by 2.6 per cent, make recurring savings of £1.3m as well as raise an additional £558,000 in new income.

While the figure will vary depending on which parish a resident lives in, the council tax increases means an average band D taxpayer living in Rother will be expected to pay a £2,036.10 annual bill, once increases from other authorities are included. 

The budget passed without any amendments being offered, with the council’s Conservative opposition describing it as a “continuity budget” following on from their previous administration.

Conservative group leader Carl Maynard said: “I welcome the fact that this is a continuity budget, but like Cllr [John] Barnes I also have several concerns.

“I think that clearly this council has a track record of delivering budgets that actually offer residents value for money and I clearly hope the current administration would continue to do that.

“But I do have concerns about some of the detail. I do have concerns that we have a resilient workforce as we go forward to make sure that we are able to operate effectively despite voluntary or any other kind of redundancies that might take place.

“Because of the lack of detail I won’t support this budget, [but] neither will I vote against it.”

Cllr Maynard said he had particular concerns about the lack of detail of where savings would be made and how much of the workforce would go as a result of an ongoing voluntary redundancy process. 

He also called for the council to pursue a more “aggressive” investment strategy to increase income and provide homeless accommodation.

This point was also raised by Cllr Barnes (Con, Burwash and the Weald) who repeated his regular calls for the council to find sites to build prefabricated, modular housing to address housing need.

Council leader Doug Oliver said: “I think there is more work to be done to put some flesh on the bones here. This is work we will continue to do, working with officers, who have worked significantly on this budget.

“It is a difficult one and I understand where modular housing comes into it. It is a pity that we haven’t perhaps tried it in the past, but here we are now.

“I believe that the areas open and available to us to contain cost and generate income are very much the same as any administration, virtually throughout the country I would think.

“We are working on that with our officers and we will come forward with what we believe is the right way.”

The council’s deputy leader Susan Prochak, meanwhile, criticised the Conservatives for some of the decisions taken during their time in office.

Cllr Prochak said: “It is interesting, having taken over from the previous administration which was in place for 20 plus years. 

“We find ourselves in the position where we have got a new waste and recycling contract. Do you know how much it costs? It’s well over £3m and the costs are going up with that. That was not in our control. That was done before we came into the administration. 

“Again with homelessness, that was out of our control. But we have started to do something about that, to provide housing for the homeless. That wasn’t started under the previous administration.

“I just want to gently point out that some of the things you are talking about, when you were there for 20 years.”

Following a short debate the budget passed on a majority to vote. Only four of the councillors present abstained, with none voting against.