The Lord Mayor of York's entire civic hospitality budget has been spent, more than two months before his term of office comes to an end.

The £13,000 kitty has run out after a very busy ten months full of engagements for the Mayor, Councillor Mick Bradley.

But City of York Council, which has held a series of meeting to discuss the problem, is confident it can avoid cancelling any engagements between now and May 21 when he hands over the chain of office.

Assistant chief executive Julia Veall says she hopes to be able to transfer cash out of other budgets to top up the fund by another £2,000.

She said the expenditure had gone on items such as Lord Mayor's Day, when a reception is held after the new Mayor takes over the chain of office, a visit to HMS York, attending Yorkshire Day celebrations and some twinning activities with twin town Munster.

Separate budgets paid for items such as Mansion House staffing and maintenance, and the Lord Mayor received a personal allowance at the start of the year.

The hospitality budget had been spent because the Lord Mayor had had such an active year.

"He does like to be very busy and wanted to pack in as many things as he could during his year of office." The next Lord Mayor will get the same amount plus a sum to allow for inflation.

Meanwhile, the cost of redundancy payments at the council has been much higher than originally budgeted.

The redundancies, which have resulted from local government re-organisation, cuts and staff re-structuring, particularly in community services, are set to cost at least £550,000 by the end of the year, half a million pounds more than had been budgeted.

A report to next Wednesday's Finance Review Sub-Committee says the overspend is a cause for concern and further management action, although it points out that there could be additional revenue savings, for example on salaries.

However, a spokeswoman stressed that it had always been intended not to set aside a budget for redundancy this year, with the expenditure to come out of balances. But a budget of £500,000 has now been set up for redundancies in 1998/98.

But there is much brighter news over corporate finance, concerning the management, borrowing and lending of the council's cash balances, reserves, investments and long-term debt. The report says that the council is set to save £608,000 on budgeted expenditure.

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