Oswestry Town Council is set to approve a new budget at its full meeting on Wednesday, with figures showing the council has largely survived the impact of Covid-19.

However, it is warning that another national lockdown could have a huge impact on the council’s reserves, with more than £200,000 lost in car parking revenues during 2020.

Oswestry Town Council clerk Arren Roberts believes the cost-saving measures carried out by the council last year, such as staffing and reduction in services, allied with more money than realised has helped the council avoid the full financial impact.

“The council is in a relatively solid position financially although the coronavirus pandemic has had a serious impact on our income, particularly car park receipts,” he said.

“Our end of year reserves were £93,000 higher last year than our conservative estimate and this has helped in some way to cushion the loss of income so far this year.

“The council has made prudent cost savings also to compensate for the loss in income and will continue to carefully monitor both its income and expenditure budgets over the coming months recognizing a further lockdown could further negatively impact on our income.”

In a report to the town council, finance officer Roger Dyke said: “The finance officer, in consultation with the town clerk and operations manager, has undertaken a line by line, page by page redraft of the 2020/21 budget taking into account potential loss of income in car parking, property rental etc and potential cost savings in staff costs, cancelled events, cost savings, etc.

“Car parking income is the biggest anticipated loss (£212,000). Also rental on property of £25,000, public convenience usage, market income, NABMA £5,000, bank interest, etc.

“However, to some extent this has been compensated for by cost savings, particularly in staffing costs where a potential £30,000 could be saved by not appointing a project manager for the time being, plus there will also be cost savings on Visitor Centre operation, youth services, overtime, events cancellation, hanging basket/floral planters and Cae Glas Park maintenance contract.”

He added: “It might also be worth reminding members that the council has an established earmarked reserve of £70,000 for unforeseen losses we will inevitably see this year.”

The council is also set to receive more than £500,000 as part of the windfall from the Smithfield site, but Mr Dyke confirmed this money cannot be used for revenue purposes and therefore cannot be included in the budget.

The meeting will start at 7pm on Zoom, with the meeting ID of 883 1491 3598.