Fareham council looks to take £1.14m from reserves to shore up unprecedented emergency coronavirus budget

A full council meeting will consider the proposal after the executive unanimously voted last night to take £1,143,700 from the General Fund Revenue Reserve to balance the emergency budget.

The pandemic had left the council’s original break-even £9.6m budget with a £3.66m shortfall, with government grants and other financial support expected to cover around two-thirds of this amount.

But council leader Sean Woodward warned that the council’s reserves of more than £155m was not ‘a huge mountain of cash’ that could be used freely in the aftermath of the crisis.

He said: ‘There has been quite a bit of talk about the size of the council reserves.

‘(There) is just £5m – or just three per cent – of that £155m that can be used to meet any income shortfall in day-to-day spending.

‘As previously stated, it’s not wise to use reserves to meet shortfalls in revenue operations...and there’s been very valid points raised about replenishing reserves, and to do this we would require cost reductions or service cuts or new income.’

The council has lost £1.2m in revenue reductions and reopening costs at its two leisure centres, while the closure of off-street parking facilities has cost the authority more than £950,000.

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The need for an emergency budget was unprecedented within living memory, according to several councillors who spoke at the meeting last night.

Councillor Sue Bell said: ‘I have been serving as a councillor since 1988, and I don’t think in the time I’ve been connected to the council, any executive has ever had to consider an emergency budget.

‘We are a strong prudent council and we manage our money very well.’

And Councillor Fred Birkett warned that there could be further economic hardship ahead.

He said: ‘This figure will still grow as we move forward, because we have not realised the full cost of this pandemic.’

The council also plans to generate further income by introducing fees to coastal car parks, with equally ‘unprecedented’ concern shown over the issue, according to Cllr Woodward.

A full council meeting to discuss the emergency budget will take place on Thursday, October 22.

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