Medway council has written to central government asking for the ability to borrow funds as it faces a £14 million shortfall.
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00:00 Ollie, what is that you're holding in your hand? Some important looking papers you've got there.
00:03 Well, Sophia, this isn't actually my fan mail. This is the budget for the next year that the
00:11 council are putting forward to cabinet next week. It's not even all of it. There could be up to 1200
00:16 pages of council documentation that they're going to have to go through. Of course, this only came
00:21 out an hour and a half ago. We haven't had a chance to go through all of it. But the headlines so far,
00:27 14.8 million pounds in short fill that has to be filled. Well, Mary Council went to the
00:32 government last week asking for the ability to borrow the money. They did ask for tax increases
00:38 as well for council tax. They were not given permission to do this. They were not in such
00:42 a financial state as someone like Thurrock or Birmingham. But they are asking for increased
00:47 borrowing. If they don't get that ability, though, the chance of getting a credible budget across the
00:52 line is the same chance of me reading this in the next half an hour. Well, what does this mean if
00:59 they can't meet this budget shortfall, though? Well, I spoke to Vince Maple to find out what
01:05 happened if it doesn't happen. The report is very clear. Actually, SIFR's words, not my words,
01:11 is that if neither element of support is given, that actually it is impossible to set a credible
01:18 balanced budget. Those are not my words, the words of SIFR. So it shows the challenges that
01:22 we have as a council. That's why we've taken their advice and recommendations. We've made
01:27 the request to central government. As I say, one element of that has been rejected, but we're
01:32 hopeful on the second element and we'll continue to work on that basis. From what we know so far,
01:38 Oli, what does this mean for the people of Medway? Well, it does mean increased charges across the
01:46 board in some things like pay and display, for example, 60 pence increase on parking. But there
01:53 are other increases to late library dues will increase as well up to 100 percent. Get those
02:00 books in before April. And there are other areas as well that are going up in line with inflation.
02:07 So the crematorium fees. I did speak to Vince Maple about this, how this is going to impact
02:13 people, obviously during the cost of living crisis. This is what he said to that. I think
02:19 this is a really challenging balance and I think we struck the balance just about right. Of course,
02:23 we will always look at what our colleagues and neighbours in other councils are doing and we'll
02:28 compare and contrast. So where we have introduced or increased some fees, although they are going
02:33 up, they're still relatively low, perhaps compared to some of the other councils across Kent. And
02:38 residents and viewers can look at that and make the comparisons themselves. All of those decisions
02:43 to increase fees and charges, of course, the pressure from the 91 percent cut in the revenue
02:49 support grant means that we're having to take those challenging decisions.
02:53 Well, of course, with Cabinet and Council coming up later this month, all eyes will be on the
03:01 council and the government to see if they can get this budget across the line.