‘Delivery focused budget’ for Mid Sussex

The change – which will take the bill to £180.36 – was approved alongside the 2022/23 budget during a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (March 2).

Coupled with precepts from parish/town councils, West Sussex County Council and Sussex Police, this means the average council tax bill will break the £2,000 mark, coming in at £2,038.26.

As for the budget, the final figures proved to be healthier than previously feared.

In January, a budget gap of £545,000 was forecast but in the end it stood at £181,000.

The gap will be closed through the use of money from the general reserve.

Things look a little rockier later down the line, with a gap of £1.395m forecast for 2023/24.

The budget includes £17.7m of revenue spending – money spent on the day-to-day running of the council – and £1.92m of new capital projects.

They include the replacement of the district’s rubbish and recycling wheelie bins over the next two years and the next phase of the Oaklands window replacement programme.

Leader Jonathan Ash-Edwards said: “This is a delivery focused budget, focused on residents’ priorities.

“We are recovering from the impact of the Covid pandemic and this budget and corporate plan is about what we’re going to do next to deliver on the things that residents tell us are important to them – some of which have been delayed due to the pandemic and all the pressures that has brought.”

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Among the other projects catered for in the budget were:

Parks improvements at Mount Noddy, in East Grinstead, Victoria Park, in Haywards Heath, and Hemsleys Meadow and Finches Field, in Pease Pottage

Preparing a masterplan for a Centre for Outdoor Sports, in Burgess Hill, with construction lined up for 2023

Playground improvements in Haywards Heath and East Grinstead

Acquiring more temporary accommodation for people at risk of homelessness.

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Mr Ash-Edwards said the council was working to ‘minimise’ the use of reserves to close the budget gap.

He added: “We don’t want to be having to prop the budget up through reserves.

“We want to be working to get out of that position – and that position is gradually improving as the wider recovery takes place around us.”

The shadow of the pandemic will continue to fall over the council’s finances for some time to come.

A huge loss of income from car parking charges has been compounded by the need to subsidise the district’s leisure centres.

While the budget report predicted that the council would receive £600,000 in income from the centres in 2022/23 – and no longer need to subsidise them – councillors were warned there was ‘considerable uncertainty over these forecasts and assumptions’.

The report added: “Despite a gradual improvement, the substantial impact on the viability of leisure centres has continued throughout the year, and this has required the council to significantly subsidise the service.

“Work with Places Leisure will continue over the coming year to optimise leisure centre usage and minimise the ongoing burden on the taxpayer.”