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News and Comment February 2022

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17 February - Free garden waste service and cheaper parking. Don’t hold your breath

Howard JacksonThere is yet another Scrutiny meeting on Bexley’s budget to report. Did anything fundamentally new arise? Maybe just a little.

First the usual report from the Director that everything in the Adult Social Care arena is better than ever but the cost of achieving a good outcome keeps rising, Circa £3 million a year higher than a couple of years ago. Councillor Wendy Perfect (Northumberland Heath) the Labour ‘shadow’ asked how the extra costs would be managed. There was no straight answer. Too many unknowns and past trends are unreliable. Pay inflation would be a big problem.

Councillor Pallen (Conservative, Bexleyheath) said that some ‘children’, many in their 50s have been looked after by family members for decades. What happens when the family can no longer manage? Charities seemed to be the answer.

Moving to Children’s Care it was reported that there had been a 20% increase in demand “over the Covid period” and a 22% rise in cost per unit. There is a nine point plan to cover these unwelcome developments. Councillor Perfect asked the same question as she did earlier. “How will the Department cope with the extra costs?” She was told “the environment is really challenging for the future”.

Councillor Richard Diment (Conservative, Sidcup) noted that foster carers have been more difficult to find, possibly due to Covid, and feared that would drive up costs. He was told that Bexley was in a better position than most Councils and the reliance on external providers is lower than most London boroughs. Nevertheless the foster care recruitment team is being expanded.

Councillor Newton (Conservative, East Wickham) asked which of the nine point plan are new ideas. The response went on for nearer six minutes than five and explained what each of the nine was about but failed to address the specific question.

Parking, Leisure and Waste costs were discussed next.

The share of revenue with the Leisure providers is not expected to recover any time soon. It will still be down by £261,000 in the next financial year before reverting to something like normal in 2024/25.

Parking revenue is down on all fronts; about £2·9 million this year but the deficit is likely to reduce to £855,000 in 2022/23. Enforcement Officers are proving to be difficult to recruit at the moment and according to Councillor Diment  around £1·65 million of parking PCNs remain outstanding. The answer was of the all too common Bexley is not as bad as the others variety.

The budget predictions for waste have been affected by Covid and the Serco strike. About £580,000 of planned savings will not be achieved this year but next year only food waste is likely to cost more than what was budgeted. About £100,000 more.

Ground maintenance costs will rise by “just over £500,000 a year” in order to pay the London Living Wage and buy some new equipment.

Councillor Melvyn Seymour (Conservative, Crayford) said there were indications that green waste collection would become a statutory requirement and if that happens it would knock a £2 million hole in the budget and a big change to the contract with CountryStyle. The Director of Finance said that he expected the Government to provide funding and no dates were known.

Councillor Nigel Betts (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) said that parking charges are always going up but has anyone considered the impact of a freeze or even a reduction. The surprising response was; “that is absolutely something we want to look at in coming years.”

Councillor Joe Ferreira (Labour, Erith) asked if there had been any modelling on the effect of lower charges up until now. Err, “No.”

Councillor Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere) said that an analysis of the figures provided for the future of parking revenue suggested “a smoke and mirrors approach” and a failure to hit any target. The Council Officer’s response was hesitant and unconvincing. When all is said and done he was only guessing in unprecedented circumstances.

Councillor Francis repeated his point that the Council will only make 39% of its predicted on street parking revenue this year but had adjusted the figure to look like 44%. He produced the financial figures to prove his case. There was no explanation.

By this point with the subject matter about to change, the meeting was exactly half way through its two hours and ten minutes but that is quite enough blog tedium for just one day!

 

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