Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s (TWBC) annual financial strategy for 2022/23 sets out Council Tax rates and how the authority is to pay for services such as waste collection.
This year’s budget also includes the use of Council reserves to plug a £1.9million deficit caused by a reduction of income during the Covid pandemic.
It is set to be voted on in two-weeks’ time.
The February 23 budget vote is a statuary obligation of the Council, and if it fails to pass, it could plunge the authority into crisis.
It will be the first meaningful vote to take place at the Town Hall on Mount Pleasant Road since the Conservatives became a minority administration, following the loss of the Speldhurst by-election at the end of last year.
The Tories, who had been running the No Overall control authority with the help of the Mayor’s casting vote, also lost two more councillors last month following the resignation of cabinet member Matt Bailey and fellow Paddock Wood councillor Bill Hills.
The Tories find themselves as a minority with just 21 councillors compared to a combined opposition of 26, meaning they need cross party support to pass the budget.
However, opposition councillors have refused to say whether they will back the Tories’ financial plan for next year when it goes before Full Council this month, despite the budget having already been approved through its various committee stages.
Hugo Pound, who leads the Labour group that has five councillors at the Town Hall, told the Times the group had discussed the budget and made a decision, but how they would vote was ‘not for public consumption’.
He added: “We don’t want to distort other people’s views or judgements.”
Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader at TWBC, Ben Chapelard, who has the largest opposition group of 12 councillors at the Town Hall, said: “Liberal Democrats councillors will read through the Conservative budget carefully before reaching a conclusion as to whether we can or cannot support the Conservative minority administration’s budget proposal for 2022-23.”
It is unclear what would happen if the budget is rejected by opposition councillors, as the Council is unable to function unless one is passed.
It could bring down the Conservative administration, or the move could see opposition members censured for failing to uphold the legal requirement to pass a budget.
It could also see intervention by Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government who could intervene and direct the council to take any action that he considers necessary to pass the budget.
Lee Coyler, Director of Finance at TWBC said: “The Local Government Finance Act 1992 requires that councils must approve a budget and set the Council Tax.
“A well-rehearsed budget setting process has been followed during the year with the draft budget being unanimously agreed by the Finance and Governance Cabinet Advisory Board and Cabinet. Following public consultation the Finance & Governance Cabinet Advisory Board again supported the budget on Tuesday, January 25.
“Full Council is the final stage in the setting of the budget and the level of Council Tax, where councillors can make their final comments and exercise their vote.
“This is an important statutory responsibility performed by councillors that approves the funds to deliver essential local services not just those of the borough council but also the County Council, police and fire authorities along with all parish and town councils which have issued legal precept demands on the borough council.”
Cllr Tom Dawlings, leader of the Council and the Conservatives head of Finance who proposed the budget, said it would be a ‘thoroughly irresponsible’ for opposition parties to reject the budget.
He said: “We are the billing authority for Kent County Council, the police and fire service so it would be thoroughly irresponsible.”
He continued: “The strategy has to be right, and we can’t make major decisions about what we should and should not be doing to provide services until the pandemic is over and the Council’s income level has re-established itself.”
