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District Councils have a duty to provide a range of services for the local community and visitors, and as a result much of a District Council’s services are governed by statute. Although this sets out what the Council must do, there is often some choice as to how it is done. For example, the Council has a legal responsibility to collect refuse, however it can choose how often it makes collections and the method used.
But each local area or district will have its own particular needs and so, in addition to its statutory services, most councils also provide a range of services that are discretionary, where it believes the outcomes of providing a particular discretionary service are worth the inputs in terms of resources needed.
As part of the development of the Budget and MTFP, we must ensure that all statutory services are adequately resourced and that the discretionary services for which funding is to be provided continue to deliver beneficial outcomes that are proportional to the cost of providing them.
Members and Officers alike have high aspirations for the Council but the constraints on the budget mean that services and future developments need to be prioritised. In some cases, planned service enhancements have had to be scaled back and future investments re-phased. The Council will develop its future budget plans to protect its key priority services, such as Street Cleansing, Refuse Collection and Recycling; and Community Safety and Crime Reduction from budget reductions that will threaten service delivery, as far as possible.
The Council’s overarching aims and objectives are set out in its Corporate Plan against six key themes, or strategic improvement areas. Co-existing alongside the Corporate Plan are a number of other service related plans, such as the HRA Business Plan, the Waste Management Strategy and individual Service Plans; as well as capital and asset related strategies, which include the Asset Management Strategy, the Information and the Computer Technology (ICT) Strategy, the Procurement Strategy and the Accommodation Strategy.
This Medium Term Financial Plan and the Annual Budget Report provide a key link between all of these plans. They underpin all of these other strategic documents, by translating the plans, actions and non-financial resources into financial terms so as to evidence their affordability and sustainability. In addition to presenting the budget projections of the Council’s plans, these financial strategy documents cover the planned approach to the financial management arrangements needed to obtain the maximum value out of the Council’s assets, which is captured within the Value for Money Strategy, the Treasury Management Strategy and the Prudential Indicators.
The Corporate Plan sets out its ambitions for Thanet for 2007 to 2011 across six key themes:
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Financial Services
E-mail:
accountancy@ thanet.gov.uk
Tel: 01843 577000