Kells council approves 'difficult' 2012 budget

Kells Town Councillors were told at their December meeting that the budget for 2012 was "not pretty reading". Cathaoirleach Cllr Brian Collins asked councillors not to make suggestions during the budget presentation without outlining "how it is going to be paid for". He said the overall figure that the town has to spend is around €2.5 million, down from about €2.6 million last year. Town clerk Jarlath Flanagan said that rates remained untouched and that there was a €10,000 allocation for free parking in a "very difficult" 2012. To balance a budget in which both rates and the Local Government Fund are down, he said expenditure would be down on legal matters, street services, corporate, equipment, machine replacement and miscellaneous items which included a staff member on €44,000 being moved on to Meath County Council's books but still working in Kells for the foreseeable future. The council's last rate increase on businesses was in 2008 and councillors were told by town manager Kevin Stewart that a one per cent decrease would represent savings of just "pennies" for the vast majority of ratepayers while losing the council thousands. "Jarlath has done a very good job in preparing the budget, it's also left a bit of latitude with the head of finance in Meath County Council, so we'll have to acknowledge that help. It's very, very much on a knife edge, it's not an expansive budget but a holding one," he said. Cllr Oliver Sweeney said the council were "lucky" to have been "very prudent for a number of years" and said they took "great care of finances in general". Cllr Bryan Reilly said there was "little room for manoeuvre" and that, "despite complaints", the council needed paid parking for income. He said €204,000 had been allocated for street cleaning before urging people to keep the town cleaner. "If there wasn't so much dirt, we could use it for other initiatives," he said. He added that at 7am on a Sunday morning, he was up and about and saw outdoor council staff at work. Cllr Sean Drew said the council needed to consult with traders and ratepayers at the earliest opportunity to bring forward schemes over what time period the free parking should take. "Regarding the €100 household tax, is that money going forward to the local authority, because my understanding is that it's not?" he asked. "Public perception is that it is going to us but we should put out an explanation to clients and customers that it's not and that we've nothing to hide; it'd be a proactive move by the council," he said. The town manager confirmed that this money was collected centrally and not by Kells Town Council or Meath County Council. Cllr Brian Curran said it was very important that people didn't take the council's services for granted and cited street cleaning and investing in housing stock as examples. Cllr Conor Ferguson said the council should look at helping people with parking fines. "€40 is too much, it's a serious amount of money if you can't afford it. Set it at €10, €15, €20, whatever," he added. Cllr Sarah Reilly suggested the "unpopular" measure of councillors looking at themselves. "Do we really need nine councillors? Could that be cut to seven, for example? That might be unpopular around this table but if it is countrywide, we can play a part in getting money back into town," she said.