Following the revelation of the following squirreling by local councils:
*Dorset County Council £101,322,000
*Bournemouth £85,397,000
*Borough of Poole £59,014,000
*East Dorset £13,050,000
*Christchurch £9,308,000
*Purbeck £7,054,000
*West Dorset £35,108,000
*North Dorset £7,051,000
*Weymouth and Portland £12,774,000
I decided to respond:
To be a prudent treasurer is seen as an achievement in local government circles.
To have substantial financial reserves shows the incumbent has a safe pair of hands.
Reserves can be stored in various places, gathering interest or awaiting the call to action. Iceland was a popular destination for local authority ‘savings’ in the early part of the 21st Century.
The chequebook would no doubt appear when required and the valuable fabric of our communities would be maintained should adversity strike…
Saving it up for a rainy day seems ingrained into the thinking of our local authorities.
Some argue it is to protect the inflation-proof pensions of former workers, because in the case of extreme circumstances, the council tax rises and cuts are announced. People doing essential work are losing their jobs while the reserves remain untouched. *
When Dorset is facing massive cuts to public services, youth services, schools, communication and travel it is apparently still not raining hard enough.
Perhaps the community is entitled to an explanation of the £13m being cut from school budgets this year.
Or at least a decipherable answer to one question.
What is the purpose of this miserly attitude?
It is raining out there.
*There is/was money for new offices for WDDC while the sun shone (the ‘saving’ that this particular spending required has yet to be announced, while even more ‘saving’ is currently continuing to be made refurbishing the unleasable old WDDC offices in Dorchester town centre.)
Sean Geraghty
