Ballina Town Council stayed within the expected budgetary spending in the first two months of the year the elected members were told this week. At the local authority’s annual budget meeting the members had requested to be updated on a quarterly basis of the income and outgoing of the council. Town clerk Carmel Murphy gave the members their first update this week. Ms Murphy told the members that up to the end of February this year the council had spent €660,129 which equates to 10.31 per cent of the total budget for the year. She went on to tell the members that the total income for the council for the first two months of the year was €715,587 or 11.17 per cent of the budgeted income for the year. Both income and expenditure were in line with what was planned for in the budget. However she warned the members that managing the finances of the council will require constant vigilance and the realisation of the council’s income will be critical in the coming months to ensure the council stays in budget.
Fine Gael councillor Mark Winters welcomed the update. “This is a welcome development by the members of this council to be kept up to date with the spending and income on a quarterly basis,” he said. “It will make sure that we don’t run into any nasty surprises later on in the year and we’re fully up to date on the finances.”
