OKEHAMPTON Town Council is planning ways to become greener and make better use of its assets as part of a new drive to run more efficiently. This year the town council was £31,000 over budget on its expenditure. Much of that figure was made up of unavoidable or one-off costs, such as the delayed move of the Merlin Cinema into the upper market hall, or bills paid to cover two-year periods. But the council did accrue £13,000 more income than it had expected. However, it still needs to find around another £12,000 to meet its targets for this year. And this will be an even greater challenge for it since the current tenant of the lower market hall has now ended his lease due to ill health, resulting in a further loss of income, while the council's own plans to establish a mini-market in the building have also floundered. As the council reviewed its accounts for 2006-7, deputy mayor Kay Bickley said: 'We need to engender a culture of efficiency, of increased income and decreased expenditure.' She said the council currently used a lot of electricity and the lightbulbs now used in the charter hall, for instance, lasted for only a very short time. 'We also need to look at what's going into waste,' she said, reviewing the council's utilities bill, which was £12,000 over budget last year. Cllr Christine Marsh said one important way of turning around the council's finances would be to make better use of the charter hall. Bookings for functions in the building remain low, because of competition from village halls, hotels, and sports halls in the area. She said: 'I'd like to see the charter hall looking like a private dining room. We have lots of paintings which belong to the town, and which could be hung on the walls for people to enjoy, and to make it a really nice space.' Cllr Marsh also said that the council needed carefully to re-examine its staffing, to avoid the large overtime costs which caused it to be around £8,000 over budget on salaries this year. The need for the council to improve its finances is particularly pressing, given that the Waitrose bonus scheme, which currently provides the town council with a share of Waitrose's profits, will come to an end at the end of next year.