People in Northumberland pay Council Tax for services not stockpiling while the vulnerable suffer

People in Northumberland pay Council Tax for services not stockpiling while others suffer

People reading Tuesday night’s Chronicle may well have been scratching their heads and asking what on earth is going on at Northumberland County Council.

And no wonder. You’ve got to question the logic of increasing care charges for older and disabled people, taking away council tax support from families who are struggling and somehow discovering you’ve got an £11.2m underspend. What is that about?

When the Conservative Council took charge they said they’d discovered a £65m black hole in the previous administration’s finances. There wasn’t one by the way. But in any case, the non existent black hole has magically disappeared.

And here’s another thing, this council is depriving so many of our vulnerable people with the support they need and deserve but have decided that putting money by to pay for legal fees relating to a number of ongoing disputes is a bigger priority.And this reserve for legal fees is over £1m. I think the council owe you an explanation of what these relate to.

I’m pleased that money is being reserved to resolve an equal pay dispute. It’s totally right and proper that people of both sexes should be paid the correct rate for the job.

The other bit of ducking and diving we read about is moving money about to make it look like departments are doing better than they are. The council’s human resources department finds its overspend reduced from £450,000 to £120,000, largely ‘due to external legal fees are now being funded corporately.’

I know it can be difficult to allocate and reserve spending when projects either happen faster or take longer to bring about. But here’s the thing. This year it’s a whopping £18.3m that’s being ‘reprofiled’ to next year.

We were told that this administration would manage its finances far better than the previous Labour-led council. From what we’re seeing here it doesn’t look like it.

Councils have to remember that it’s your money they’re spending. You pay your council tax and your national taxes because you want the money spent to improve your life and the wellbeing of the county. Does it feel like that to you?