East Staffs Borough Council Letter

by Brain Buxton - 17:37 on 05 March 2009

Popular Alliance leader, Councillor Brian Buxton recently had this letter published in the Burton Mail.....

Dear Sir, 

Further to your recent articles and letters relating to the publication of ESBC Council Tax rates for 2009/10, I would like to highlight how Staffordshire County Council and ESBC have differed in their approach. 

According to Councillor Grosvenor (Burton Mail February 6th), ESBC set the rates 12 months ago, since when, as we all know, there has been a huge change in the economic environment.  Since originally publishing their rates, Staffordshire County Council has managed to shave their increase from 3.9% to 2.45% (the lowest Council Tax increase proposed by the authority for 14 years). Well done to them, for making savings and reducing the rates to reflect the difficult times in which we find ourselves. However, ESBC has only managed to shave 0.4% off its rate increase, and Councillor Grosvenor is now trying to defend the indefensible by stating that the Council Tax rise is 'justified'.  

He does this by highlighting the Council's 'achievements'. He states that there have been significant savings over 12 months, but doesn't tell us the level of the savings, and where they have been made. He also states that improvements have been made – to the car parks (what improvements, and how much have they cost?), by the introduction of the alternate weekly bin collection (this may be an improvement for the Council, but not necessarily for many householders!) and by the provision of the Customer Service Centre in Uttoxeter (is this really a high priority in the current economic climate?). 

Now let us look at the areas where the Council has actually wasted our money, rather than saving it. 

It has borne a £5,000,000 loss on investments in Iceland (despite Councillor Grosvenor's optimism, what chance do we really have of getting this money back, given that Iceland as a country is now virtually bankrupt?).  

It has allowed the Leisure Centre to run down, on the expectation of a deal with Tesco which has subsequently fallen through, and now needs to spend £5m to update the building. Is this a wise investment due to the Centre's age, or merely a quick fix to get the Council 'out of a hole' ? 

ESBC spent £20,000 on consultant fees when appointing Jeanette McGarry as Chief Executive 18 months ago, and then, after only 9 month's service, £121,000 was spent to get rid of her.  

Staffordshire County Council has shown that a significant reduction in the planned increase can be made, so, the question is, has ESBC really done all it can to keep the Council tax increase to a minimum, or are we having to pay for its mismanagement and inefficiency ?

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