Fraudster pocketed over £3k

core government funding.

Councils, particularly in the north, are currently having to plough all their existing resources into meeting the increasing demand for services, such as adult and children’s social care and tackling homelessness, at the expense of investing in leisure facilities.

The LGA says the funding gap facing councils will be £5.8 billion by the end of the decade and is calling on the government to launch a £400m improvement pot.

Clr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, chairman of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, said: “Leisure facilities are the cornerstone of a physically and mentally healthy community and are used by thousands of families every day.

“They get people active and keep them fit and healthy, which in itself is a major long-term cost saving for the country as it prevents the need for treatment further down the line that in turn puts significant extra pressure on social care and NHS services.

“But no-one wants to go to a leisure centre that is old, tired and run down.

“Councils need to be given the resources to offer the kind of highstandard, modern facilities that the public rightly expects which in turn helps them keep fit and healthy.” A CALDERDALE woman committed benefit fraud when she failed to tell the council that she was living with her partner.

Kirklees magistrates heard that Harriot Brown’s claim for housing benefit when she moved to a new address was fraudulent from the outset.

Vanessa Jones, prosecuting, said that between July 2014 and June 2015 she was overpaid £3,142 by Calderdale Council as a result of the fraud.

The 30-year-old, who runs her own cleaning business, pleaded guilty to dishonestly making a false statement to obtain a benefit.

She applied for housing benefit on the basis that she was single parent of three children, Mrs Jones said.

Brown explained that her relationship was on/off and at the time when she made the claim to the council her partner had left and she didn’t think that he would be back.

She said she didn’t consider herself to be in a relationship but admitted that when her partner came back to the house she should have informed the authorities.

Brown, of Chester Terrace in Halifax, was sentenced to a community order with 80 hours of unpaid work.

She will have to pay £85 costs and £85 victim surcharge.