West Berkshire Council’s new administration has announced its first budget. But it is operating on depleted reserves described as “quite frightening”. Reserves are now down to around £4m – £3m below its proclaimed comfort level of £7m. “This is quite frightening as there is not a huge amount of headroom for anything that comes left field at us,” said Iain Cottingham (Lib Dem, Thatcham Central), finance portfolio holder. The overall budget of £174m is being funded by a council tax increase of 4.99 per cent, including the social care precept. And £12.4m more goes into adult and children social c…