Council chiefs have unveiled plans to employ new street cleaners, build 40 council homes and refurbish multiple public toilets as part of the authority's budget for the upcoming year.

In the draft budget for 2020/21, Thanet District Council also revealed proposals to increase council tax in Thanet by around 10p a week, invest £400k in helping tackle homelessness and employ a dedicated climate change officer.

The report, which will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday , sets out the council's financial position for the year ahead and identifies how it is going to allocate £17.1 million to fund services.

The authority plans to increase its part of council tax by £4.95, equating to a weekly increase of less than 10p per week for an average Band D property.

In the report, finance chiefs reveal a u-turn in the planned cut of £175k for public toilets, instead investing in refubishment of amenities.

A planned £250k reduction in funding for homelessness could also be scrapped and more money pumped in to help tackle the issue, which has failed to improve on last year.

In addition, a climate change role has been proposed as well other environmental schemes including additional tree planting, the reduction of pesticides and herbicides, and a plan to increase recycling.

Leader of the council Cllr Rick Everitt says despite significant funding reductions in recent years, the council is continuing to consolidate its financial position.

"We now get almost no Revenue Support Grant from central government, which means we have had to deliver our services with less and less help each year," he said.

"Given the real challenges that many of our residents face that is particularly difficult for this council, but we have still produced a balanced draft budget.

"I’d like to thank officers and members for all of their work to achieve this and for identifying savings which neither provide a need for compulsory redundancies, nor adversely impact on the priority services we provide for local people."

Cabinet member for finance Cllr Rob Yates says the "key wins" include a new climate change officer, 10 new permanent staff to improve street cleansing and plans to build at least 40 new council houses, as well as increasing council tax on long-term empty homes, refurbishing public toilets and increasing the levels of recycling.

"We hope that this budget will be supported cross party as it aims to invest in Thanet, improve our services and best support our community for the future," he added.

Thanet District Council receives 13p in every £1 of council tax. The remainder goes to Kent County Council, Kent Police, Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, Kent Fire and Rescue Service and town or parish councils.

The draft budget report reveals the authority has just £13.5m in reserves, just over half of the average £24m a district council typically has.

It also discloses the "unexpected and unbudgeted" setbacks the council has suffered in recent years including Transeuropa, live animal exports, fines from hand-arm vibration syndrome and a sizeable overspend on Dreamland heritage park.

The report states: "Coupled with this, the council has an unfavourable record of overspending against expenditure budgets and non-delivery of saving targets.

"This suggests Thanet carries certain inherent risks – it owns and runs a port, it issued a CPO on a heritage theme park and it retains an in-house direct labour workforce.

"No other district has all these characteristics. This implies Thanet carries far more risk than average and so, even the £24m average reserves of a typical district may be on the low side."

Following the cabinet meeting, the draft budget will be presented to the overview and scrutiny panel for comment on January 21 and then go to full council on February 6 for final approval, before implementation from April 1, 2020.

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