TORY SHIRE THAT’S GOING BUST

Crisis-hit Northamptonshire faces slashing council services to plug £70million black hole

‘Letting vulnerable people down’

A BANKRUPT council faced growing anger last night at an emergency meeting called amid fears it may no longer be able to afford services for vulnerable children and adults.

Tory-run Northamptonshire County Council is facing a £70million black hole in its finances.

In March, a scathing Government report criticised years of poor financial management where ‘living within budget constraints is not part of the culture’ and recommended the authority should be scrapped. Council leader Matthew Golby, who is facing calls to resign, has proposed it provide only skeleton services – those it is obliged to deliver by law – as it looks to save the £70million from its annual budget of £441million. He said the offer was all the council is likely to be able to afford and included ‘sufficient’ maintenance of highways and footpaths and a ‘ limited number’ of household waste disposal centres.

However Bill Parker, a former cabinet member for finance, said provision of adequate social services for adults and children was at risk. ‘This is a very, very serious situation,’ he told Radio 4’s Today programme.

The council has already reduced bus services and the gritting of roads in winter. It faces a legal challenge over plans to sell 21 of its 36 libraries.

Last week the council issued its second 114 notice – a statement of insolvency – after warning it could not balance its books. The notice bans any new spending and followed one issued in February relating to the last financial year 2017/18.

Brian Roberts, one of two Government-appointed commissioners sent in to oversee the council’s spending, said its finances were in a ‘truly perilous state’.

The authority blames Government cuts but the report found serious failings and said the situation was so bad it should be scrapped and replaced with a unitary authority.

Councillors, who have dug into its reserves rather than raise council tax, have been accused of wasting money on vanity projects and frittering cash on foreign trips and courses.

Max Caller, who led the March investigation, said NCC had lost control of its budget in 2013 after a critical Ofsted report forced it to overhaul children’s services.

He said it ‘did not respond well’. Senior management and councillors had ignored warnings.

Finance director Mark McLaughlin, who has announced his resignation after only seven months, has been scathing of years ‘of illinformed and inappropriate’ decision making as the authority tried to balance the books and criticised the use of reserves for dayto-day expenditure.

Last night, campaigners called for a Government bailout, saying cutting services any further would put jobs and lives at risk.

Penny Smith, from Unison, said: ‘The county council is once again letting the most vulnerable people in the county down, and putting their health and wellbeing at risk.’

Opposition councillors refused to back the proposed cuts, which they called ‘an absolute disaster’ and possibly illegal. No vote was taken and a cabinet meeting will be held on August 14.