Bedford’s new Conservative Borough Council Executive has said it is “far too early” to share their budget plans.
At Wednesday’s Executive Meeting (21 June), Cllr Michael Headley (LibDem, Putnoe) asked what the new Conservative administration’s approach will be to delivering “the savings needed to balance the budget next year”.
“Including what your saving target is, what areas will you be looking at to cut, and what’s the cost of your manifesto commitments in your so-called fully costed manifesto, that will increase the need for deeper cuts,” he said.
Cllr Graeme Coombes (Conservative, Wixams & Wilstead), the portfolio holder for finance, risk and welfare, said: “I think it is far too early to say, obviously we have only just taken over from the previous administration.
“We are going through the financial picture, it is not a great picture, we have a £2.3 million overspend on last year which happened on your watch, I might remind you.”
Cllr Headley was portfolio holder for finance in the last administration.
Cllr Coombes added: “We are the ones that have to deal with that even though it was something that took place under the previous administration.
“So watch this space cllr Headley, you will get an answer to your questions in due course.
“But you were the portfolio holder until just a few weeks ago, so you know exactly the state of this borough’s finances and whatever has gone beforehand has gone on on your watch.
“I would hope that we would be much more prudent and manage the borough’s finances in a much better way, and I look forward to being able to deliver that in due course,” he said.
Cllr Headley responded: “I was very concerned to hear the current portfolio holder talking about it being too early, too early, to have developed these sort of ideas of how to make the savings.
“In terms of the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), which hopefully the portfolio holder and the mayor have read, you’ve got until September to come up with your savings options.
“You’ve had a month and a half of that already, you’re approaching halfway through the time you’ve got.
“It’s very concerning and will be very concerning to residents, to hear that you think it is too early to have made much progress.
“You need to hit the ground running, and you haven’t done and I can certainly can’t see any evidence of that from the comments that I’ve heard tonight
“Getting a balanced budget is one of the most fundamental building blocks of running a council and I’m not seeing that you’re able to achieve that,” he said.
Bedford mayor, Tom Wootton (Conservative) said: “That’s heart-warming that you are so concerned for us.
“We’ve just been through an election process where those sorts of speeches went on and on and on, and the people have made their choice.
“We’re sitting in these seats, we’ve got to drive this council now, and we’ve got to make these decisions now,” he said.
Councillor Coombes said: “We will look to put a budget together going forward where we make sure that we’re able to deliver our commitments, but also that we are robust, and we have to get this spending under control.
“Because it’s quite clear that the previous administration didn’t,” he said.
In a statement after the meeting, Bedford Borough Conservatives said they had uncovered a “colossal £2.27m hole in the previous administration’s supposed ‘balanced budget’ for 2022/23”.
“The outgoing Liberal Democrats racked up millions of pounds in overspend, as a result of failing to deal robustly with significant financial pressures on services and ballooning costs,” they said.
Adding, “A hefty £3.29m overspend has been largely attributed to the runaway cost of temporary accommodation, which seems not to have been anticipated, and with no long-term plan in place.”
“We are now having to pick up the pieces after 14 years of poor planning, lack of vision and decisions ducked, which have collectively failed to deliver a properly balanced budget,” added Cllr Coombes.
Cllr Michael Headley said “It is clear that the Mayor doesn’t even have the start of a plan to balance the budget next year. He wasn’t able to give even the slightest answer on what his strategy will look like or where he will make cuts or by how much.
“He couldn’t even answer the simple question on how much his manifesto will cost to implement – surely one of the first things to sort out?
They are rapidly approaching the halfway mark on the time they’ve got to develop proposals before the required September deadline.
“Setting a balanced budget is a fundamental task of a council and residents will rightly want to know that they are on top of the planning for this.”
Following comments on the Outturn report Michael Headley added “It was a challenging year for councils, caused not least by the government’s economic chaos with soaring inflation and increased costs for delivering vital council services.
“However, it is worth remembering that whatever the Conservatives say now, at the time of the 2022/23 budget being set they proposed cutting the council’s income by £2m.
“Without doubt, the council’s finances would be £2m worse off if they had had their way at the time.”
by Paul Hutchinson for the Bedford Independent
and John Guinn, Local Democracy Service.
Update: This article was updated on 23 June 2023 at 6:20pm. We added a response from Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats Council who were not able to reply by the time this article was originally published.
