Scanner asks: Should council be mothballed for winter to save us even more money?

So, the Guildhall has to close for the winter and, in spite of denials by our Ober Fuhrer, I’ve heard of at least one redundancy and another post, the Education Officer’s, will not be filled as the lass has departed to an area that pays much more than just lip service to tourism. The need, apparently, is to save £19,000. Not a huge amount in council spending terms, but, being cynical, I wonder what is behind this sudden drive to slash spending. Councillors, several years ago, were supposed to have adopted a monthly finance reporting system so that officers could highlight problems as soon as they arose. So is this a result of feedback on this one aspect by our accountants or is there a deeper problem that is being kept under wraps?
Will our councillors make public the answers to the following very important questions? They do, after all, claim to run a transparent council and could easily get the figures if the reporting system is in place. If it is not, perhaps they should be questions all
councillors or the local press ought to be seeking the answers to.
Are the crematorium receipts meeting their budget so far this year? Last year crematorium and cemetery charges were hiked to try and fill this year’s council spending black hole and, at the same time, a new crematorium opened in Alford. At that time, I warned that both of these moves could affect our business. Have they done so, and if so, by how much?
Last year, to keep a political promise, our leaders tampered with car parking charges. By how much are car parking receipts within budget so far this year?
In spite of the benefits of pensioners’ free bus passes, what is the ratio of paid journeys made to free ones, and what is the ratio of journeys made to the total number of seats offered? How much was the government grant for this service and, using the above statistics, will it cover the total costs for the whole year?
What was the expenditure and income relating to the Party in the Park? We were told that there was a terrific loss of over £50,000. Incredibly, that is more than half of the total cost of the event. This was in spite of being assured that entry charges would solve any problems. What were the staffing costs? Other borough run events, such as the Boston Show, were sunk because of high council staffing charges. Perhaps the sacking of CAMRA had an effect? What were the extra costs – security of cash, performing rights etc.- relating to the collection of admission charges and was there, in fact a profit from doing so? We were asked: “Should plug be pulled on party?” And Councillor Blaylock even had the cheek to suggest that we should fork out more. After the uproar the BBIG group made about event insurance, did they have it this year, and, if so, what was the cost? How can any of us make an informed decision without knowing the full costs? Are they even able to give them to us?
How many visitors has our “new, improved” Tourist Information Bureau had so far compared to the last equivalent period of time in the efficient, much missed TIC in the Market Place?
I apologize to the council if some of these figures have already appeared in the minutes. But I must still take to task our so called “news” papers. Accurate and detailed accounts of council meetings seem to be a thing of the past. Are the days of investigative reporting by our locals over as well? Does apathy rule OK? They seem to just accept council statements at their face value without any questioning. Don’t they do any in-depth scrutiny of decisions made within the hallowed walls in Wet Street Buildings? Have they even heard of the Freedom of Information Act?
If any councillors out there can give answers to the above questions, I’m sure the Target and the Standard would be pleased to publish them for you. But please don’t make the figures too complicated as they may not understand them. Your replies, of course, would be welcome here!

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