HEREFORDSHIRE Council has a budget for 2015/16 but at a cost to the ruling Tory group.

Two opposition amendments to the budget were voted through at this morning’s meeting (Fri) as election battle lines were drawn.

Ahead of the substantive budget vote, Cllr Tony Johnson, council leader, warned of “huge pressures” still to face an incoming administration.  

It’s Our County (IOC) group leader Cllr Anthony Powers served notice that a new council would “re-visit” spending priorities.

This budget, he said, was “not a matter for today, but the seventh of May”.

The substantive vote at Hereford Shirehall was carried by a 33-3 margin with 12 abstentions.

Earlier, the Tories lost two amendment votes by the slimmest of margins but saw off another.

At face value, the budget, as passed, establishes principle with none of its commitments taking immediate effect.

Approval of the amendments moves a funding allocation from one budget to another; it does not change policy or authorise the activity that the amendment seeks to support.

The vote does confirm a council tax increase of 1.9 per cent -  just short of a rise that would trigger a referendum – that sees the average (Band D) bill up to  £1,275.10.

An amendment proposed by the Independent group called for £125,000 to be committed from the council’s general reserves to a feasibility study for the Rotherwas rail link.

 Originally, the amendment saw that sum coming out of grant funding for rural transport.

The extent of support for the one-and-a-half rail link - which is awaiting the results of a passenger demand study - was questioned in the ensuing debate.

Comparisons were made with the council’s spending on road projects and the equally questionable extent of support.

 At a vote, the amendment was carried by a 26-24 margin with one abstention.

An amendment proposed by IOC called for £220,000 to be  removed from the public realm grass cutting budget and used instead to fund:

• £75,000 to match funding parish councils undertaking open space grass cutting.

• £75,000 to further defer implementation of the ‘change to nearest school’ transport policy and introduction of post-16 special education needs transport charges until September next year.

• £70,000 to increase to £114,000 the support for pilot work on locally led well being projects with the potential to attract match-funding.

On this, debate centred on the readiness of parish councils to take up grass cutting and decisions already made by parents over school choices.

The amendment fell by a 26-25 margin with no abstentions.

A third amendment, proposed by the Liberal Democrats, wanted £50,000 of transition funding to be channelled from reserves to Herefordshire Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB).

In December, the council confirmed that it was to cut the funding support it offered to CAB – a £117,460 grant and accommodation costing £75,000 a year – in favour of its own information advice model which is now out to tender.

While there was broad support for CAB in the chamber, debate focussed on the legality of making the money available during a tendering process of which CAB was a part amongst other organisations.

The amendment was carried by a 23-18 margin with nine abstentions.

 Away from the voting, there was recognition for the work done by the council’s financial team to bring the authority in on budget by the end of the current financial year.

 But this came with the warning of an “even harder” year ahead.

Councillors were told of an update to the 2015/16 spending settlement from government that make an extra £220,000 available to adult social care which would be put into the relevant reserve.

Opportunities identified in the council’s initial 2015/16 spending settlement allow spending to be increased in designated “priority” areas including £200,000 to re-introduce rural bus services that received significant local public support and £400,000 to maintain increased grass cutting in parks and verges.

These options arise out of the government’s overall increase in rural funding and offered the Independents and IOC the opportunity to propose their amendments.

Current estimates put the council’s general reserve balance at £8.63 million  by the end of the current financial year.

The Lib-Dems made a case for their amendment with this figure being well above the recommended “prudent balance” of £4.5 million set against the £50,000 for CAB which represented a reduction of less the one per cent.

In recommending its favoured option, the ruling Tory group rejected the government’s offer of a one-off grant to freeze council tax.

Cllr Johnson, leader of Herefordshire Council, has defended the rejection of the grant saying the council would have to find a further  £750,000 in savings if the grant was taken up.

As proposed, the budget sees spending on adult social services slashed  by £5.5 million over 2015/16,  children’s wellbeing by £1.1 million and spending on other services by £3.6 million.

The council maintains the majority of the savings can be found through on-going “efficiency measures” such as the “improved” use of technology rather than cuts to frontline services.

To 2013/14 the council has saved £34m and is on target to save a further £15m in the current financial year against a background of reductions in grants from central government, increases in demand for council services and increasing costs to the council.

But significant further savings will still have to be found over future financial years.

Initial 2015/16 budget proposals were put to the council’s two overview and scrutiny committees in November with neither proposing alternative options.

Although the council is on target to deliver within the overall budget in 2014/15 there is slippage in some savings and additional pressures in both 2015/16 and 2016/17 that have been mitigated by alternative savings and the use of contingencies.

At present, the council’s medium term plan estimates a near £34 million funding gap arising from increased costs and reduced funding.

The latest 2014/15 forecast outturn shows an overall delivery of savings in  the current year with an additional £18 million of savings required over 2015/16-2016/17, £10 million  2015/16 alone.

A total savings plan for the financial period 2011/12-2016/17 accounts for £67 million.