WEST Devon Borough Council is to receive an extra £218,561 from the Government towards funding its services next year. The grant settlement is a 5.9% increase on last year?s figures. Cllr Dick Eberlie, chairman of the council?s strategies and resources committee, said: ?Out of this funding, we have to meet the extra cost of many new services the Government has imposed on us such as the new liquor licensing. ?In the present difficult financial circumstances, I am however pleased and relieved that all the lobbying the council has undertaken in recent years, particularly with other small rural authorities through SPARSE (Sparsity Partnership for Authorities delivering Rural Services) appears at last to have shown some results.? The new grant will help towards the extra cost of providing all council services through new computer technology which the authority is required to do by Government. Councillors are faced with the increased running costs of operating all council services via the internet, in order to meet E-Government targets set by Central Government. In the coming year the running costs of delivering these services electronically are in the region of £200,000. Yet the council still has to operate traditional means of serving the public too and this, in part, explains why the cost of running local government rises faster than inflation. The council has been working since the summer to make savings of around £360,000. Cllr Eberlie added: ?We have examined very carefully all areas of expenditure over the last few months. ?There are still some hard choices to be made in order for the council to keep the council tax increase to an acceptable level. ?We are driving costs down as hard as we possibly can and it must be remembered that a 1% increase in council tax in West Devon ? an extra three pence a week for an average band D property ? only generates £30,000 for the borough.?
