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Ward fund plan is rejected
CALLS to create a £231,000 ward fund to be split between councillors have been rejected.
Hartlepool Borough Council is faced with slashing £15m from its £90m budget over the next three years due to savage government cuts, with about £6m being cut over the next 12 months.
As part of the 2012-13 budget proposals, the council’s scrutiny co-ordinating committee had called for a new Ward Fund of £231,000, which would provide each member with a £7,000 budget to manage.
In May, the number of councillors is being slashed from 47 to 33 and it was proposed to create a pot of money to deal with specific ward issues not covered by existing budgets.
But the council’s cabinet committee rejected the proposal saying it would be “divisive” when it met to back the final budget proposals.
Independent councillor Cath Hill said: “I would rather this money be put towards next year’s budget.
“All it will cause is trouble.”
Independent councillor Hilary Thompson agreed, as did Labour councillor Jonathan Brash, who said: “This is a nice to have, and we are not in a position to have nice to haves.
“We need to put every penny into frontline services and frontline jobs.”
Labour councillor Pamela Hargreaves said it focused the attention in “all the wrong places”, while Labour councillor Ged Hall said it would “create more division”.
Mayor Stuart Drummond said he wanted to make councillors more accountable, but he said whether the council could afford it was open to question.
Labour councillor Marjorie James, chair of the scrutiny committee, said: “I do believe that there is work to be done and that this amount of money is not excessive.”
The pot of money included the underspend from the acting chief executive arrangements (£76,000), the joint head of HR role with Darlington (£21,000) and one-off savings from the public sector strikes in November (£50,000).
All of the cabinet recommendations will go before full council on Thursday.
Mayor Drummond said: “This is the second year of a difficult four-year period and there does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.”
Finance chiefs have also forecasted a net under-spend of £4m this year as a result of “robust” management of budgets, holding posts vacant and benefits from temporary interest savings on council’s borrowings.
There has also been an early saving of £1m from the 2012-13 budget proposals due to some measures being introduced a few months early.
The cabinet also confirmed its backing to freeze council tax levels in order to qualify for a one-off government grant of about £1m.
Councillors said they wanted to give residents some respite but described it as a “government bribe” as it means the council’s base budget will be £1m less.
The cabinet committee also approved indicative Council Tax increases for 2013-14 and 2014-15 of 3.49 per cent for planning purposes.
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Weather for Hartlepool
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: East
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