Budget Approved For Run-Down Areas, Hardship Fund In Worthing

Worthing Borough Council’s budget for the next financial year has been agreed and includes money for improving ‘rundown areas’, changes to car parking, and a hardship fund.

The revenue budget for 2022-2023 was approved at a full council meeting on Tuesday (February 22) coming in at a net total of £13.7 million.

Council leader Kevin Jenkins (Con, Gaisford) outlined how it could aid recovery following the pandemic, including help for those struggling financially.

He said:

“As we near closing the 2021-22 financial year, we are still facing a number of challenges.

“But our position remains good with a current overspend currently showing at £14,000 – remarkable in the current situation given the journey we’ve been through.”

Executive member for resources, Elizabeth Sparkes (Con, Offington), said the challenge of setting a budget ‘really could not have been greater’ following the pandemic and its ‘continuing impact on council finances’.

But Labour wanted to see more money for green spaces and to address poverty.

Group leader Dr Beccy Cooper (Lab, Marine) said: “Great architecture, green spaces, and practical solutions can work seamlessly together – we just need new ideas and the willingness to do things differently.”

Labour proposed its own amendments to the budget totalling around £281,000.

But this received criticism from deputy council leader Ed Crouch (Con, Marine) who said the items would have to be funded from reserves- something a budget report said should be used ‘only as a funding resource of last resort’.

Ultimately, the amendments were voted down and were also not supported by the Lib Dem group.

Now the budget has been approved, some of the key changes residents could see include:

Car parking

‘We’re not out of the woods yet’ was the message from the council leader.

Even though the council has managed to balance its books, the pandemic impacted on its income and government covid support is being phased out.

The council is expected to lose out on £187,000 in car parking income due to the pandemic and fees will be changed between March 28 and the end of the year to help address this and ‘to assist visitors and shoppers in the short term’.

The cost of parking for two hours at the Buckingham, Grafton and High Street car parks will be temporarily reduced to £2.00.

But this will be accompanied by ‘moderate increases’ to other tariffs and an increase to the town centre workers tariff across all three car parks.

The council is also refurbishing its car parks.

This has an expected revenue cost of £136,000 next year but this is only the amount used for financing as the works are being funded through borrowing.

Fixing ‘run down’ areas

Mr Jenkins also announced a ten per cent increase to the street cleaning budget of £800,000 which he said would include graffiti removal.

A total of £80,000 has been set aside specifically for Lido structural repairs and the leader said investments of nearly £300,000 would ensure its long-term future.

Additional money is also set to be spent to improve parks and play areas

But the plans were scrutinised by the Labour group leader who claimed residents had found it difficult to even ‘put a bench in their local park’ and called on the council to listen and engage with them more.

Dr Cooper said: “Where there should be green, community friendly spaces, we too often find concrete and dirty walls.”

Bike scheme

The council confirmed that a ‘large-scale bike rental scheme’ will continue to be rolled out and will include electric bikes.

A total of £52,000 has been set aside for this with further funding proposed for future years.

Hardship fund and homelessness

Homelessness was identified as a potential cost pressure in the budget.

“The human impact of the covid pandemic is clear, not more so than in our homelessness as case loads continue to rise,” said Mr Jenkins.

“As we all learn to live with covid, we recognise that families and businesses are facing their own cost of living pressures and in this budget we set out how we can help.”

The council is hoping to invest in further emergency and temporary accommodation to reduce cost and meet rising demand.

Figures from WBC’s ‘LIFT’ platform showed that 240 households were ‘struggling financially’ in September 2021.

A further 119 households were financially ‘at risk’ and 39 households were identified as being ‘in crisis’.

The platform is used as part of the council’s ‘proactive’ project which sees staff reaching out to those identified as ‘in crisis’ to help improve their situation.

During the budget meeting, councillors heard how the project saw 239 low income households contacted between March and December 2021.

Of those, 164 agreed to work with the council to try to improve their income or reduce household debt.

The project has now been extended and a £100,000 hardship fund – which aims to give one off payments to struggling families – was given final approval.

The Labour group wanted to see an extra £100,000 for the hardship fund – bringing the total to £200,000 – but this was voted down.

Councillors also approved a total health and wellbeing budget of £1.9 million.