10 February (Part 2) - Wandering free at Hall Place
A Councillor
friend who knew I planned to record last night’s Scrutiny meeting and listen to
it today mischievously texted me this morning to suggest I didn’t bother. He
described it as dire but dry might be a more accurate description.
It has always been a dilemma when reporting meetings that the ‘dry’ stuff (which
to me includes Finance) can be very important but it attracts very few
readers, hence car parking and yellow box junctions so often making an
appearance here. Spare a thought for the Chairman who has to get on top of both ends of Scrutiny’s ‘dire’ spectrum.
There was the smallest suggestion of a ‘scandal” last night. Councillor Melvin Seymour
(Conservative, Crayford) said the meeting had “been in the diary for some
considerable time now and look at Page 2. Just ticks with absolutely no
narrative. It to me looks like a document cobbled together at the last minute
with no due respect to the Scrutiny process. I find it somewhat disappointing.”
Referring to a document that I have been unable to find he said “it clearly
shows the charges for Hall Place but I was under the impression and given an
assurance that those charges would not take place and we had no plans whatsoever
to make charges for Hall Place. I would like a yes or no whether we are going to
charge or not going to charge and if we are not why are they in the papers? If
not it gives rise to rumour which we could do without.”
Councillor Craske said “there are no plans, the proposals we had which we published a long time ago were
scrapped quite a long time ago
and I have said that at several meetings. We are not doing the playground and
the only thing that is going to change in the next couple of months is the
arrival of the model steam train. There are no charges coming in at all.” (It
was all systems go for charges in October 2019 but when the idea was abandoned no one seems to know.)
I am not sure if Cabinet Member Craske made the announcement several times but he
definitely did last December.
The confusion has arisen because the House will continue to attract an entrance
fee of £8 as it has done for many years. Councillor Seymour and others had been
obviously referring to the proposed garden access charges although did not actually say so.
Councillor Nigel Betts (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) asked about the
numbers of staff to be made redundant and was told that the names and posts
would be circulated to Members “tomorrow”. That is today.
Councillor Perfect tried to ask her Children’s Centre
question again. She was told that if the savings are not forthcoming
following the consultation the funding will come from “budget contingency”. Why
couldn’t Cabinet Member Read say that when asked the same question instead of dodging it?
Councillor Ferreira asked his favourite question which is about the request to
Government for Capitalisation of £15 million which is due for announcement last
year, last month, this month, sometime never! It is only 15 working days from
budget setting so things are being cut fine. “Some local authorities withdrew
their applications, how many are left with a Capitalisation Order?” Cabinet Member Leaf came up with
the same old answer. The announcement is “imminent. Sit tight!”.
The Finance Director said that the financial situation now is very different to
what it was last Autumn due to generous non-ring-fenced government grants. He no
longer sees it as “a significant issue if the full Capitalisation Order was not agreed”.
He might get by on as little as £4 million.
To be continued…
P.S. Only minutes after this blog went on line
the BBC reported that Bexley Council had been granted its £15 million
Capitalisation Order. How much money has been thrown at BexleyCo so far with no return? A loan in principle of
£120 million. Finance Director
Alison Griffin’s parting gift to Bexley. It is worth reading what Councillor
Philip Read had to say about BexleyCo.
“Government intervention in markets leads to inefficiencies, a bloated
bureaucracy and unjustly highly paid leadership and often notwithstanding any
original philanthropic intent ends up with businesses being run by the staff for
its staff and customers just an unfortunate irritant.”
And more in similar vein. Maybe Councillor Read should have had the courage of
his convictions and voted against BexleyCo. He didn’t.