This article (albeit by the LGA) highlights just how tight local government finances could become in the not so distant future. I wonder what tack HBC would take faced with such drastic circumstances - reduce services down to the legal minimum or just hike council tax up to the hilt (or maybe worse still, a bit of each)? Ah well, should this transpire there would be little room for vanity projects, methinks!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9354336/Councils-will-have-no-money-for-main-services-by-2020.html
The money wasted at council level must be enormous some of the tales i've been told by people who work for the HBC is scary.
I've no doubt that, had there not been an election round the corner, HBC would have opted to put up council tax significantly this year. We should all expect a maximum increase next year assuming that some sort of cap is put in place by Westminster. Times are tough at the council for sure, but that's the rub of the matter; times are tough for everyone. The idea that the council's discomfort can simply be passed on to the public, as if the public have bottomless pockets, will once again show just how disconnected our present council has become. The cash raid on the £4m underspend by the Labour Group demonstrated once again that they just don't get it and can't rid themselves of their 'buy-now-pay-later' culture.
It says a lot when so many of the Manor Mafia have personal credit ratings that are worse than that of Greece but it gets so much worse when they bring their loose spending habits into the council chamber.
This is not the real world we're talking about. When someone labelled as 'incompetent' by a Government department still gets to be vice-chair of the Council isn't it obvious that the normal rules of logic and probity no longer apply.