Five months after city’s ‘bankruptcy’ the cracks are starting to show

THE signs of Nottingham’s financial crisis are truly beginning to show in day-to-day city life.

When the city council was discussing its effective declaration of bankruptcy in late 2023, there were predictions from top councillors that overflowing bins would be among the myriad consequences of the cuts to inevitably come.

Overflowing bins are certainly now aplenty in Nottingham and one is just as likely to stumble across litter as another protest march or meeting demanding the saviour of some of the city’s beloved institutions. Historic libraries are bedecked with banners calling for support and staff from some cultural venues are taking measures as extreme as skydiving to keep vital services going.

As abhorrent as they are, many of these new facts of Nottingham life are ones that were foreseen. Yet as the months go on, we are seeing this financial crisis rear its head in an increasing number of unexpected areas.

We reported a few weeks ago that Nottingham City Council employees benefitting from a reduced NCT bus pass, paid for by money being taken out their wage packets, were suddenly told these passes would be cancelled. NCT said that despite repeated requests, Nottingham City Council had not been paying for the passes – leaving employees scratching their heads as to where their money had been going.

Only when the Post contacted the city council about the issue did it get resolved at the 11th hour. More recently, we reported on delays in getting payments out through the Homes for Ukraine scheme. One host, Leigh Harrison in Carrington, contacted us to say that the city council were late to the tune of £1,000 in paying him to host a Ukrainian family. The delays left him ringing round utility companies asking to delay payment. Once again, after the Post contacted the city council, payments to Mr Harrison were miraculously authorised.

In both instances, the delays arose due to the system implemented after the council’s Section 114 notice. That effective bankruptcy notice triggered the establishment of a spend control board, chaired by the council’s chief finance officer, which has to review every single item of spending by the authority. Given the size of the council and the breadth of services it delivers, requests to this spend control board understandably seem to be piling up.

What was truly remarkable about the Homes for Ukraine case was that we were not even dealing with the city council’s money here, but Government funding which they simply have to distribute. Yet the authority confirmed that every single bit of spending, no matter its source, has to go through the spend control board.

The above becomes even more troubling when one considers that the measures enabling the spend control board are due to remain in place until at least the end of March 2025.

As mentioned above, the size of Nottingham City Council inevitably means that asking a panel to approve every bit of spending it does is going to be a process fraught with delay. But the point needs to be stressed again that whoever is at fault for getting us to this stage, and whatever system changes need to be made, the people of Nottingham should not be suffering the consequences currently being visited upon them.

It is a point that will become increasingly important as we head into a period which will see the city council decide where some of its other multi-million pound earmarked cuts will fall.