Horsham District Council accused of 'inflating' budget worries

Horsham District Council has been accused of ‘inflating’ possible future money problems to justify selling off assets such as the Drill Hall and Rookwood Golf Course.

During a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (February 10) questions were asked about the Medium Term Financial Strategy, which predicted a steadily increasing deficit in council funds, reaching £2.65m by 2024/25.

However, it was pointed out by an opposition councillor and a member of the public, that no increase in council tax had been included in the projected figures for the coming years.

John Milne (Lib Dem, Roffey North) said the budget created pressure to sell off ‘much loved community assets’, adding that some of the assumptions made for the next few years were ‘extremely pessimistic’.

He said: “If you look at the deficit at the end of it – £2.6m – you’re thinking that’s panic stations.

“But if you understand how that figure is generated you realise you could actually come up, by a few simple measures, with a very, very much smaller figure that would not be threatening and might not lead to the same decisions over such issues as the Drill Hall, Rookwood and Broadbridge Heath running track.”

During public question time, Paul Kornycky, a Rudgwick resident, said £2m could be knocked off of the deficit figures by assuming a two per cent rise in council tax.

Asking for confirmation of what the assumed council tax levels for the next three years would be, he added: “Understanding the reasonableness of assumptions made in putting together these projections is very important to instil public confidence in their integrity.”

Paul Clarke, cabinet member for finance and assets, told Mr Kornycky that councillors ‘do not pre-empt council tax rise decisions in future years because this would restrict the decision making of the future council’.

But the budgets for 2019/20 and 2020/21 included assumed rises for future years.

The only one in recent years which didn’t was the 2018/19 budget.

And with the financial cost of the pandemic likely to have an ongoing impact on council funds, rises in council tax are only to be expected.

Mr Kornycky added: “Why have you made such an implausible assumption in your projections, which has inflated the published medium term deficit by 40 per cent, unless perhaps to attempt to justify the potential sale or closure of valued community facilities?”

There were words of caution from Brian Donnelly (Con, Pulborough, Coldwaltham and Amberley), who painted a bleak picture of what would happen if the council failed to balance its budget.

Pointing out that officers had to take a ‘prudent and cautious’ view of the future, he said: “Many of us appear to forget that we have a statutory responsibility to balance the budget.

“If we fail to do so there is a clear and present danger that we could be put into administration – which has happened to other councils.

“If we go into administration it will be a fire sale by an administrator, with the members having no say in it whatsoever, of assets which are non-statutory assets – and that will include all the very much loved services that we do provide in this district.”