Arun District Council fail to agree a balanced budget

Introduced by leader Shaun Gunner, the proposed budget used just shy of £5m from reserves to plug a gap in the figures and suggested a 2.99 per cent increase in council tax.

Mr Gunner then tried to withdraw the whole thing after an amendment from Jamie Bennett (Lib Dem, Rustington West) to freeze council tax was approved.

Instead, on the advice of officers – who said they had never been in such a situation before – councillors voted to adjourn the meeting until March 9, when they would try again.

The new meeting falls two days before the council is legally required to approve a balanced budget.

Mr Bennett’s amendment was built on the back of a recent recommendation from the audit & governance committee that the council remove its investments in the Qatar National Bank and the First Abu Dhabi Bank.

He suggested that the majority of that money – some £8m – could be reinvested, while £602,000 be used to cover a freeze in council tax.

The idea went down like a lead balloon with Tory councillors, who said it was simply taking more money from reserves – money that could not be recovered once it was gone.

While some argued that the council would lose income on the investments in the two banks, others pointed out that the money had been invested at a very low rate and reinvesting it elsewhere at a higher rate would actually bring in more money.

After a lengthy and sometimes bad-tempered debate, the meeting was adjourned until Thursday (March 9).

Officers advised that, while the amendment could not be overthrown, it could itself be amended.