TWENTY-ONE years running – that’s how long the council has operated within its budgets for.

This comes after finance bosses confirmed Bracknell Forest Council (BFC) spent £81.1 million of £83.6 million allocated for spending on services including social care, leisure, community support and more in the last year.

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BFC finance chief, councillor Peter Heydon, said: “We have lived well within our means.

“We do tend to deliver an underspend and that is because of our prudent and frugal management of our cash resources.

“That’s the way Bracknell Forest seems to operate.”

Documents showed a number of examples where the council either underspent or overspent on its allocated budgets.

The budget was bolstered by the council no longer needing to borrow significant amounts of money for its property investment scheme, meaning it spent £3.4 million less on interest payments than anticipated.

Another key underspend included a £288,000 reduction for concessionary bus fares, which came about because ‘the anticipated increase in bus passenger numbers following the opening of the regenerated town centre did not materialise’, according to council documents.

However, a £270,000 increase in spending came about in children’s social care services, primarily due to a rise in the number of children being looked after, with 121 care packages anticipated compared to an actual need for 135.

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The delayed sale of Easthampstead Park Conference Centre cost the council £300,000, as reported by the News previously.

Despite this, A £2.3 million VAT repayment from leisure income strengthened the council’s finances, meaning the majority of the unspent money from the 2018/2019 financial year will go towards balancing future council budgets.

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BFC’s reserves stood at £9 million by the end of March, with £2.6 million of this going towards financing this year’s budget.

This leaves £6.4 million available – £2.4 million above the minimum recommended level.

Cllr Dr Gareth Barnard commended officers' work in underspending on the budget, adding: “By constantly working ahead of the curve, we do the very best we can with the resources, recognising that most of it comes from taxpayers money and to spend it wisely and appropriately is very important for any council to do.”

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Councillors met to discuss the revenue budget at a meeting on Tuesday, July 23.