At the Annual Parish Meeting we were given a comprehensive presentation by BANES Councillor Charles Gerrish of the Council’s financial position and of the pressures that it faces. The most startling fact was that eighty percent of the council’s revenue is spent on adult and children’s ‘social care’. Funding for schools comes under a separate arrangement in which government money is passed straight onto the schools. The obvious conclusion is that all other expenditure, pot holes, libraries and so on must come from the 20 percent, or £22m remaining. Despite this pressure, the council has to reduce expenditure by £58m by 2020. Hence the severe pressure on expenditure.

Click here for a graph depicting the break down in their available funds, then click ‘download’ at the bottom of that page.