THE chief financial officer of BCP Council has insisted he made a suggestion, not a recommendation, to consider an alternative budget for the current financial year.

Prior to councillors signing off on the budget for 2022/23, senior officer Adam Richens highlighted a number of risks of significant value in the plans that made up the Conservative administration’s proposals.

In a report on the current medium term financial plan, Mr Richens, chief finance officer and director of finance, said he suggested an alternative budget configuration.

He said councillors “duly considered and rejected the recommendations of the chief financial officer”.

This reference in the report sparked frustrations among opposition councillors, who have said they were unaware of this ever being the case.

In contrary to what was stated in the report, Mr Richens told members of the corporate and community overview and scrutiny committee: “I did not make a recommendation. It is not my role to make a recommendation.

“My role within the report was to set out my advice and councillors have a responsibility to consider my advice.

“As part of my advice I suggested an alternative that may actually better place the authority pressures into the future.

“Members have responsibility to consider that advice. They do not have to take my advice because ultimately the level of reserves is a matter for council, not chief financial officer.

“My assumption is that in coming and agreeing the budget for 2022/23 that members reflected on my advice, they chose actually that they recognise it but they don’t support the suggestion that I made and therefore that didn’t lead to any formal recommendations being brought forward to council as part of that process.”

Labour councillor George Farquhar, who was allowed to speak at the meeting despite not being a committee member, said he did not feel the serious concerns Mr Richens had came to the fore at the full council meeting when the budget was approved.

As reported, Mr Richens detailed eight risks that were being taken in drawing the budget plans based on assumptions.

Asked by Independent councillor Stephen Bartlett if he stood by the view he gave in the budget report back in February, Mr Richens said: “I still stand by that advice but what I am doing is working with the administration to carefully, through this report, monitor those risks with regard to making sure where they or any risk we didn’t think about, like cost of living, crop up that we are putting into place mitigation strategies and therefore working in that proactive way to ensure the council’s finances are still in that overall state of control.”