Shepway Council Increases Spending on 'Leadership' By 39% But Cuts the Key Services to Local People

12.25.10pm GMT Fri 22nd Feb 2008

At last night's Shepway District Council budget meeting Lib Dem Councillor Peter Carroll slammed the ruling cabinet for a massive hike in spending on 'leadership and strategy'.

Peter Carroll said:

"The Council says it is short of money. It is struggling to do the basics for local people like put in new bins and repair broken street signs. At the same time the budget presented last night quite clearly shows a MASSIVE 39% increase in the amount of money that the Council intends to spend on 'leadership and strategy'. In pounds notes this is an extra £600,000!"

At the meeting, Cllr Carroll pressed the cabinet member responsible for finance - Cllr Monk - to explain this increase. He was astonished to hear that Cllr Monk could not explain the figures! Cllr Carroll believes that the Council is increasing spending money on itself than it is spending on key services.

Cllr Carroll said:

"I want to know how Cllr Monk and his cabinet colleagues are going to explain these figures to the hard pressed Council Tax payers on Shepway. In all its plans and strategies the Council says it wants to spend the money on cleaning the streets and cleaning up the area. In the budget the sums of money being spent on these areas are actually going down and a whooping £600,000 is going on 'leadership and strategy' - is this more money to pay for Councillors? Is it more money on consultants? Is it more money on wages for senior officers?"

During the budget meeting the Cabinet claimed great credit for applying the technique of 'Zero Budgeting' to areas of spending. In this approach, the managers look at a function and question every penny spent on it. In the meeting, Cllr Carroll challenged Cllr Monk to apply this technique to 'leadership and strategy'.

Related Link:

Shepway Budget 2008 [PDF]