Credibility Crunch

Whilst we may not be quite up there with the leaders when it comes to service standards, we're certainly in the top decile when it comes to top flight top paid top management. When Dave Burbidge was parachuted in the Summer before last as interim Director of Finance (before it was quietly pointed out that such an arrangement is unlawful) he was reputed to be on a higher rate of pay than even the great Duckworth himself. Unlike many interims, Dave is still with us, but now spends a few minutes on the payroll each week to keep the District Auditor happy.


He has faced a daunting task, and as co-author with Bazza Abraham of the February 2008 budget master plan he certainly hit the ground ...er... running. Unkindly branded a "budget for bankruptcy" by the "glass half empty" brigade his master plan addressed a forecast budget gap of £7m in the current year, £8m next year, and £7.5m in 2010/11 through the spiffing wheeze of planning to find £12m of efficiency savings and taking £10m from balances (and borrowing £30m, but prudently of course)


So how have things fared? Well according to the "Quick guide to budget and council tax setting for 2009-10" issued to selected invitees to the Council's budget consultation process, it seems that we aren't quite out of the woods yet.



In fact, the combined budget gap for the three years appears to have risen from £22m to £67m. The guide suggests that £43m of this will come from savings, and £24m from balances, but a cynic might well be concerned that if the savings target for this year alone has actually risen from £2m to £7m since last February, with only 4 months of the year left to go, then the whole plan looks a bit aspirational. Also, despite Bazza's touching belief that he added £14m to balances last year, the reality is that they reduced from £42m to £29m, and even under his own optimistic assumptions will fall by a further £24m to a pathetic £5m by March 2011.

However, there is no need for concern. Having seen the incredible improvements in service delivery and massive savings that inevitably flow from all public sector IT initiatives, our esteemed leaders are committed to a wholesale replacement of many mission critical systems by, appropriately, April 1st next year, and without wasting time on namby-pamby parallel running. This is a courageous move, especially with elections so soon afterwards, and we must wish them well.

Meanwhile, look out for a top-percentile Council Tax rise in February!