In a hole?

Carry on

digging?

It seems that Boston Borough Council - aka the BBI - has decided that the best way out of a deep hole is to keep on digging …

Whilst we understand that the current financial position of councils across the land is pretty dire, it seems that the only way that Boston can find to ease the pain is to increase charges that will ultimately drive business away from the area.

The council needs to collect £3,292,000 as its share of next year’s council tax collection. To go towards the £9,848,000 it needs to run all services in 2011/12 – which is down from £10,614,000 this year.

Other income comes from the government and other fees and charges. This year’s government grant was £7,262,000 and it is expected that next year it will be cut by 11 per-cent to £6,463,000 - then reduced by six per cent a year for the next three years.

Savings already planned are expected to save around £328,000 in 2011/12, and by 2015/16, will need to reach £1,492,000.

No allowance is being made for inflation or staff pay rises and it’s expected that staff levels will fall from 297 to 282 next year.

So far, not so good.

Along with many other critics at the time, we argued that the Bypass Independents’ policy of what was laughingly described as a zero per-cent “rise” in council tax was a false economy – and this has proved to be the case.

A rise these past couple of years of around two-percent would not have generated a fortune, but would have made quite some difference to the council’s coffers, and not cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg. Instead, the BBI was more concerned with looking good than with financial realities.
A rise might also have made some of the proposed cuts and increased charges avoidable.
We have already donned our earplugs in anticipation of the squeals of protest that we expect will result from some of the budget proposals.
A partial reduction in grants to community support organisations has been recommended, and even though the government is giving £100 million to the voluntary sector in the short term, and a further £370 million over the remaining three years, we recall the last time how our local do-gooders reacted when told that the might not get the money they had come to take for granted as an annual stipend from the public purse, and which in some cases was not well spent.
Increases have been proposed in - among other things - charges for cremations and burials, car parking and charges at the Geoff Moulder Leisure pool.
Granted, they don’t amount to much, but as we have previously reported, the cost of dying is considerably less at Alford Crematorium than at Boston. Alford is also newer, and offers additional facilities such as the acceptance of “very large” caskets – which relatives of late lamented Boston fatties might find handy. In fact in general, its services seem aimed more at benefiting the consumer rather than the provider.
Car parking will be another burning issue, and we think that the time has come to consider refining the cumbersome system of five different fees – ranging from a one hour rate to all day parking.
At Spalding’s Springfields, for instance, the charge is £1 for the first two hours, and £2 for the whole day. Simple, straightforward and attractive.
And increasing swimming charges? The pool’s popularity is already on the wane due to the various uncertainties over its future, and all a price increase will achieve is further to drive people away.
And if all this isn’t bad enough, the borough’s head of finance, Peter Linfield, says there are tough decisions to face. His report said councillors might want to review both statutory and discretionary services and review council priorities, considering reducing the number of priorities so as to focus on what is really important to the community.
It sounds as though more cuts and price rises are on the way until borough services are the bare minimum that can be got away with at the most that can be charged.

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