{"id":455,"date":"2011-04-19T10:20:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T10:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/?p=455"},"modified":"2011-04-19T10:20:34","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T10:20:34","slug":"election-news-a-look-at-the-councils-finances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"Election News: A look at the council’s finances"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fat<\/a>Local Government finance is a labyrinth.<\/strong> The Council\u2019s accounts are a piece of masterful obfuscation. On the face of it they do a remarkably good job, consistently under shooting budgets, and making efficiency savings. But remember, this is the Council which blew \u00a31.3 million of your money on golden goodbyes for senior officers.
\n<\/a>
\nSSDC\u2019s council Tax at \u00a31,449 for a Band D property is the highest in Somerset. Only \u00a39 million (10 per cent) of the tax raised is spent by the District Council. (See this post<\/a>). However the Council has additional sources of revenue \u2013
\nGovernment grants (still your money!) – \u00a311 million (14%)
\nBenefit Subsidy (still your money!) –\u00a0 \u00a346 million (56%)
\nFees and charges\u00a0 -\u00a314 million (17%)
\nIncome from investments – \u00a0\u00a31.3 million (2%)<\/p>\n

This gives it a combined income in the region of \u00a381.8 million, about \u00a3521 per member of the population it serves.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the easy part. Unraveling where all the money went is not easy, since the Council very cleverly mixes up all the expenditure under arbitrary\u00a0 and sometimes inpenetrable headings. It also talks about \u201cnet expenditure\u201d (the amount of council tax payers’ money spent after taking into account other income and grants). It is therefore not easy to see exactly how much money was spent, and on what.<\/p>\n

If you see the District Council\u2019s job as simply collecting rubbish, keeping the streets clean, regulating planning and building control, then you might wonder where the rest of the money was spent.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Council\u2019s website, there appear to be a number\u00a0 of worthy, but ultimately ineffectual activities which would\u00a0 only by missed by the jobsworths who have responsibility for them.<\/p>\n

Here is a list of items, taken from the last published accounts<\/a> for 2009\/10, published in September. They have been chosen because they have more than a whiff of jargon and wonk-speak about them, and they surely do not (can not?) deliver the value of the funds spent on them. Bonfire anyone?<\/p>\n

Item\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a3000<\/strong>
\nStrategic management\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 718
\nPlace & Performance\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 404
\nEconomic development\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 576
\nSpatial Policy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 2,471
\nThird Sector & Partnerships\u00a0\u00a0332
\nLocal Strategic partnerships\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 55
\nTotal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a34,556<\/strong>
\n
\nPeople costs.<\/strong>
\nThe SSDC employs 520 people at a total cost in 2010 of some \u00a319.3million. That\u2019s an average of \u00a337,136 per employee! Wow! Plenty of scope for a cost\/benefit analysis there.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong>
\nThere is room for cuts which would prune the establishment, without cutting so-called front line jobs or damaging essential services. Every little helps as the saying goes, but in order to have an effect on the level of Council Tax, the other beneficiaries from this pot of gold also have to make equally dramatic cuts \u2013 the Police, The County Council, the Fire and Rescue service. Only 10 per cent of your Council Tax goes to the District Council, remember.<\/p>\n

The Blog would welcome your comments, especially if you are a candidate in the forthcoming elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local Government finance is a labyrinth. The Council\u2019s accounts are a piece of masterful obfuscation. On the face of it they do a remarkably good job, consistently under shooting budgets, and making efficiency savings. But remember, this is the Council which blew \u00a31.3 million of your money on golden goodbyes for senior officers. SSDC\u2019s council … Continue reading “Election News: A look at the council’s finances”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2757],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6glYD-7l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}