Hyndburn Council Underspend

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Lord Britcliffe, Earl of Oswaldtwistle.

He'd have to have been born either side of t'lamp, to claim that noble title.

He wasn't, so would have to settle for the lesser courtesy title of Archduke of Accy.

[gynn]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I've just had the budget through and it's a fairly weighty tome but I will be asking questions about it. From a quick glance it seems that the main area of interest will be Policy and Corporate Governance.

The last Government put a lot of weght on ticking boxes to show how Hyndburn was performing in meeting targets, achieving policy objectives and implementing new government dictats. The more ticks you got, the higher your score. If you got enough ticks, you got the title "Excellent". As we've seen often enough from postings on this site, such an award was ludicrous in Hyndburn's case.

However, such box ticking brought with it a whole raft of bureaucracy which took pen-pushing onto a new level. Hence the astronomical Policy and Corporate Governance budget.

If the Council can get an assurance from Eric Pickles and his colleagues that the new Coalition Government is sweeping aside all that bureaucracy, then your budget setting will become a piece of cake, Ken. Good Luck!

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by gynn

The last Government put a lot of weght on ticking boxes to show how Hyndburn was performing in meeting targets, achieving policy objectives and implementing new government dictats. The more ticks you got, the higher your score. If you got enough ticks, you got the title "Excellent". As we've seen often enough from postings on this site, such an award was ludicrous in Hyndburn's case.

However, such box ticking brought with it a whole raft of bureaucracy which took pen-pushing onto a new level. Hence the astronomical Policy and Corporate Governance budget.

If the Council can get an assurance from Eric Pickles and his colleagues that the new Coalition Government is sweeping aside all that bureaucracy, then your budget setting will become a piece of cake, Ken. Good Luck!

Budget setting for Labour is never a piece of cake gynn, ask Gordon Brown, Saviour of the Universe (self acclaimed)

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by jaysay

Budget setting for Labour is never a piece of cake gynn, ask Gordon Brown, Saviour of the Universe (self acclaimed)

Once again I'll point out that we're in Hyndburn, Jaysay. If you want to try and bring national politics into it, something which is so far removed as to be a separate entity, then carry on. We have quite enough to worry about following 7 straight years of Conservative-run Hyndburn without trying to pin the blame on 13 years of Labour government.

For everyone else, the council has a lot more say in its own finances than you would be led to believe. There isn't a huge pot of money as the majority of council tax goes to Lancashire County Council but there has been more than enough opportunity for the current controlling group to whittle out wasteful spending. I didn't hear any of the Tory faithful bleating about 'Labour's borrowing' when the grant money was rolling in for Conservative projects in Oswaldtwistle or the handout for the defunct Hyndburn Life website.

Whatever colour badge you happen to be wearing, the controlling councillors up at Scaitcliffe House are ultimately responsible for how Hyndburn money is accounted for.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Once again I'll point out that we're in Hyndburn, Jaysay. If you want to try and bring national politics into it, something which is so far removed as to be a separate entity, then carry on. We have quite enough to worry about following 7 straight years of Conservative-run Hyndburn without trying to pin the blame on 13 years of Labour government.

For everyone else, the council has a lot more say in its own finances than you would be led to believe. There isn't a huge pot of money as the majority of council tax goes to Lancashire County Council but there has been more than enough opportunity for the current controlling group to whittle out wasteful spending. I didn't hear any of the Tory faithful bleating about 'Labour's borrowing' when the grant money was rolling in for Conservative projects in Oswaldtwistle or the handout for the defunct Hyndburn Life website.

Whatever colour badge you happen to be wearing, the controlling councillors up at Scaitcliffe House are ultimately responsible for how Hyndburn money is accounted for.

Saw you keep saying, but yet there's £750000 underspend, seems they must have cut out the lunchtime butties

[Bernard Dawson]

Originally Posted by jaysay

Saw you keep saying, but yet there's £750000 underspend, seems they must have cut out the lunchtime butties

No I can confirm the butties are still there. I was having a sandwich with Peter in he's office after the cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Mind you, they could have been left over from the Christmas Party I suppose.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Bernard Dawson

No I can confirm the butties are still there. I was having a sandwich with Peter in he's office after the cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Mind you, they could have been left over from the Christmas Party I suppose.

See Bernard, frugal to letter is our Peter Mind you there may have been a slight extra expense for clingfilm