Burnley councillor’s Labour cash plea

A LOCAL authority Labour group leader has urged it bosses to spend part of its half-million pound underspend on its main town centre, street cleaning and improving its green spaces.

Cllr Mark Townsend made the plea at Burnley’s Full Council meeting on Wednesday night.

He spoke out after borough finance boss Cllr Margaret Lishman gave the final financial out-turn for the authority’s Revenue Budget 2023/24.

She said:”The council reported a surplus of £501,000for the 2023/24 financial year which compares with a £60,000 projected overspend at quarter three.

“The surplus is mainly due to additional investment interest income realised due to the high Bank of England base rate.

“The surplus has been set aside in the transformation reserve.”

Cllr Townsend proposed to split the £501,000 between £150,00 to the revenue support reserve so it could be used to pay for day to day services in the coming 12 months £351,000 for the strategic transformation reserve.

He said: “From a £60,000 overspend at quarter three to a £501,000 underspend is some transformation.

“The majority of the £501,000 underspend was totally predictable ahead of us being asked to approve the 2024/24 budget.

“The money could have been used in 2024/25 to fund additional expenditure or to lower bills but it wasn’t given to us.

“It is our view that rather than the whole underspend of £501,000 being solely ring-fenced for strategic purposes we should give ourselves the future option to use a portion of this one-off windfall to mitigate future expenditure pressures or fund one-off growth items or reduce bills.

“We need to strike a balance between day to day services and strategic intent and I want to proportion this one-off windfall and it shouldn’t just go into strategic reserve where we can’t get it out again.

“Let’s give ourselves some wiggle room that will allow us in this year, for example, to support the Business Improvement District to make our town centre safer and more welcoming or to improve the maintenance of our overgrown green spaces or to clean up our litter-strewn and dog-fouled streets.”

Cllr Lishman: “We did know there was likely to be monies coming but we did not know how much.

“That money going into the transformation reserve is primarily to fund the waste transfer station that we are going to have to fin because of the actions of the county council and also to implement elements of our digital strategy. All of which we need.”