25 September - Getting back to business
Six Bexley councillors got back to work last night when the Audit Committee
reconvened in Public Gallery East - apologies to Licensing and Planning
Committee members who don’t get a three month break.
Converting an old building society office to a town hall was never likely to
provide ideal accommodation and the two small committee rooms are even worse than
the council chamber for any member of the public who might wish to attend and
actually see and hear. The meeting rooms are long and narrow and the top table is
far away and committee members naturally address it rather than the public. It all
makes for audibility being something of a challenge.
Committee Officer Sandra Baxter always does the best she can in the circumstances and this time had
wheeled out the Hearing Loop kit which I do not believe was used by anyone, only John Watson and
myself having braved the traffic gridlock that extended from Erith to Ruxley Corner yesterday evening.
The last
Audit Committee meeting was dominated by councillor Steven Hall and his stream of questions,
but this time he was eclipsed by Labour councillor Daniel Francis who had
prepared a whole series of queries. Without him the meeting might have been
over in 20 minutes rather than 70 (†).
Among the few interesting items that cropped up was that the council had
underspent last year by £883,000 which has been transferred to the reserves.
Councillor Francis asked what the reserves were as a percentage of overall
expenditure. Finance Director Mike Ellsmore said that total expenditure
excluding schools was about £160 million and total reserves were about £46
million so "around 30%”. “What would be a good level for reserves?” councillor
Francis asked but Mr. Ellsmore said the issue was far too complicated for such a
question but given “the volatility of council financing” he would prefer the
figure to be higher than it is.
One of councillor Francis’ themes was how the academy status of many Bexley
schools impacted on the council’s financial liabilities and he several times
alluded to a Bexley school where there had been financial irregularities and who
was going to pick up the bill. It would appear that one way or another it will
be the council tax payer.
Another theme was Children’s Services which has soaked up an enormous amount of money
with little to show for it apart from
a Government
Improvement Notice. Mr. Ellsmore said the demographics are getting steadily
worse and the costs will rise. He lamented the fact that the work force was
still not stable - they keep leaving! -and that impeded the spread of Bexley’s ethics.
No comment please!
Councillor Francis expressed some concern about the council’s decision to insure
itself only minimally and save a lot of money in the process. This has always
seemed to me to be a sensible move. Why bloat the insurance company profits when
you own enough property (or whatever) to spread the risk? One effectively
becomes one’s own insurance company. Deputy Finance Director John Peters
explained the theory and that the insurances that were in existence limited total liability.
Councillor Francis
(second from left in photo above) arguably drifted off topic when he made reference to the
ludicrous scrutiny situation recently introduced by leader Teresa O’Neill as
part of her ambition to stifle debate. He said that we now have a 46
member People Scrutiny Committee of which Children’s Services is now relegated
to a minor component. It was “not effective” and there were “grave ongoing
concerns”, as well there might be, of everything related to the programme of
‘democratic deficit’ pursued by the leader. Perhaps chairman Joe Pollard agreed
because he did nothing to stop councillor Francis from wandering towards the
territory occupied by other committees.
Bexley’s auditors (Grant Thornton) were present and represented by Sue Exton and Geoffrey
Banister. Ms. Exton said that the council does not maximise council tax
collection which is not as good as other boroughs which continued to improve
whilst Bexley usually has not. 2013/14 did show some improvement.
Mr. Ellsmore regretted the fact that despite trying a wide variety of incentives, Direct
Debits remained stubbornly at the 66% mark, far below Bromley for example.
Probably this is due to Bexley’s generally low value housing where people move
in and disappear six months later. I see it frequently in my own road where
there are flats mixed with detached houses and it would appear to be a very
plausible explanation.
It still isn’t clear how Bexley is going to fill its £40 million black hole and the auditor has noticed.
In 2014, before the results of the public budget consultation has been analysed
and ignored, this is probably to be expected and Ms. Exton agreed that many or
even most councils were in the same boat.
This meeting was the last one to be graced by Finance Director Mike Ellsmore
before his retirement at the end of the month. I am sorry to see him go, I
don’t think his name has ever been associated with any negative comment on
Bonkers (high salary apart!) and unlike any of his colleagues will exchange a
friendly word or two when the opportunity arises. I am sure all the regular
attendees at council meetings will be wishing him well with his retirement plans.
His successor starting work in Bexley in a week’s time will be
Alison
Griffin who comes from Camden but is no stranger to Bexley.
† The public were flung out after 70 minutes while some of the council’s dirty secrets were discussed in private.