South Kesteven District Council approves new reserve funding to focus on flooding and investment in culture

Two new funding reserves costing over £200,000 will be created to aid potential flooding and invest in leisure.

South Kesteven District Council’s cabinet unanimously approved on Tuesday (July 8) creating a £30,000 flooding reserve and a £200,000 for a leisure investment reserve.

Leader of SKDC Ashley Baxter (Ind, Market and West Deeping) said that the council needed to “be able to act quickly when people are affected by flooding”, following the damage caused by storms earlier this year.

He added that the council also needed to be “prepared for what is happening to our leisure centres” with the new investment reserve.

Coun Rhys Baker (Green, Bourne Austerby) praised the “fantastic team” that have been “proactive” in arranging these reserves.

It was also approved that £100,000 would be moved from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Priorities reserve to create a HRA climate change reserve.

Coun Baker added that the creation of the climate change reserve reflected SKDC’s “important regard for climate change”.

Councillors also approved to increase the IT reserve by £200,000 and to increase the property maintenance reserve by £250,000.

All of this money is being taken from £680,000 of the business rates volatility reserve.

These approvals will be reviewed by the governance and audit committee.