The Cathaoirleach welcomed the Members to the meeting.

Martin Lydon informed the members as follows:

The Local Government Act 2001 Section 102, as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014, provides the legislative basis for the revised budget process.  It states that “In the case of a county or city council, the Chief Executive shall consult the Municipal District Members for each Municipal District in the Local Authority’s functional area in the preparation of a Draft Local Authority Budget and, for that purpose, a Draft Budgetary Plan for the Municipal District shall be prepared under the direction of the Chief Executive and submitted for consideration by the Municipal District Members for each Municipal District in the manner and in the format that may be prescribed by regulations made by the Minister.”

The purpose of a Draft Budgetary Plan is to provide each Municipal District an opportunity to allocate its proportion of the General Municipal Allocation (GMA) according to its priorities. 

Schedule of Municipal District Works and Service Delivery Plans

Section 103(A) (1) provides that, following the adoption of the Local Authority Budget, a schedule of proposed works of maintenance and repairs to be carried out during 2020 in each Municipal District shall be prepared under the direction of the Chief Executive, having regard to the availability of resources.

The Schedule of Municipal District Works shall be considered by the Municipal District Members concerned and be adopted by resolution, with or without amendment. In making an amendment, the Municipal District Members shall have due regard to the Local Authority Budget adopted in accordance with section 103(9).

In producing the Draft Budgetary Plan, the following was considered:

1.       The needs and resources available or likely to be made available to the Council

2.       The resource needs of each Municipal District, including where appropriate condition survey, population, location of facilities, etc.

The Corporate Policy Group considered the basis for apportionment of Roads expenditure and decided on 23^rd September, 2019 to change the criteria for apportionment in 2020.  It will be based on a model of 33.3% population, 33.3% km of road and 33.3% road condition.

The Athlone GMA for 2020 is €754,721.  The following will be included in the budget for 2020 -

• €85,000 Municipal District Fund for each MD is reinstated for 2020.  A new governance model and scheme for allocating the funds will be produced;
• €150,000 has been included overall for street cleaning with Athlone MD receiving €44,788;
• An overall figure of €120,000 has been allocated to roads at the request of the members;
• €12,000 additional funding has been allocated across the 3 areas to assist in the Tidy Towns Programme and combat illegal dumping

The members commented on the draft budget as follows –

• Disappointment was expressed regarding the distribution of funds for Roads, Transport and Safety Service Division, that the overall figure for the Roads element should be divided equally between the three Municipal Districts;
• Consideration must be given to the introduction of a Service Level  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.19