Louth County Council to hold €3.9m budget surplus

Louth County Council is to hold onto a budget surplus of €3,962,840 as a type of rainy day fund, as items including energy costs remain an issue for the local authority, councillors were told at the local authority's monthly meeting last Monday.

Director of Services Bernie Woods had presented the county councillors with the Louth County Council 2022 Annual Financial Statement for their approval of revised expenditure and transfers to and from the local authority's Capital as per the report.

Ms Woods told the meeting that there was an overall surplus of €1.59 million, which added to the General Reserve of €2,370,230, left the local authority with a General Reserve of €3,962,840.

Commenting on the decision to hold onto the budget surplus as a rainy day fund, Cllr Marianne Butler said that “part of that €4 millon could be put to better use and used this year to support so many different schemes that could do with a couple of extra quid.”

Cllr Butler added that should the money be needed during the year, that it be used wisely and that “it's not just sitting in a bank account.”

Chief Executive Joan Martin told the meeting in response that the local authority already had a mini budget earlier in the year, which dealt with many of the areas of funding that councillors had concerns about.

Ms Martin said that at present she saw no reason to change the surplus amount but if things change during the year, she could go back to the members on it. She added that having the surplus would leave them in a comfortable position going into next year's budget but further added that if members had any items they want the surplus spent on, they could look at that.

Cllr Michelle Hall asked if some of the surplus could go towards lighting in areas where there previously was none, to help improve safety for people as they had previously been advised that there was no funding available for lighting in new areas.

Cllr Hall also highlighted that there was degradation of ramps in various locations and proposed that some funding go towards that also.

The Chief Executive replied to say that the problem in relation to funding for public lighting was not for the installation of the lights but the cost of running them “on a forever basis” and that was why the embargo was there.

In relation to roads, Ms Martin added that while Director of Service, Catherine Duff, hadn't sought additional funding for roads, the Chief Executive accepted that there has been a deterioration of roads in recent times due to the weather and so on, and that if Ms Duff wanted to look at the matter again and decided that extra funding was needed, they would come back to the members.

Ms Duff said that it was not just financial resources that was an issue but also how much capacity the Council had to take on the extra work but added that they would look into it.

Cllr Hall came back to comment that she had thought the installation of LED lights would have meant lower energy costs, and that making decisions on funding was one of the few executive functions that councillors had. Cllr Hall added that extra lighting would make it safer for people to go out in the evening and that it would be a good way to spend money.

Ms Woods replied to say that the savings made from using LED lighting was going back to pay off the loan to install them. The Chief Executive also responded to say that she would take Cllr Hall's proposal back to the staff to consider it but added that Cllr Hall was proposing that they spend money on the installation of lights but not how they would pay for the running of them.

Responding to comments from Ms Martin on not wanting to go back to a stage 10-15 years ago where councillors were requesting new lights in different places, Cllr Hall said she did not want that but would like an audit done on lights across the county.

She added that she would like to see it done to establish darker areas, as there are women who do not want to go out in the evenings as they find it too dark and there was a perception that it was too dangerous. Ms Martin said they would look at Cllr Hall's proposal.