THE Conservatives’ handling of Earley Town Council’s budget has been labelled a ‘mess’ by the new administration, a charge that the party denies.
Cllr Clive Jones, who leads the ruling Liberal Democrat group on the council, said that his party’s new budget shows that it can rule “prudently and properly” compared to his predecessors, who ran the town council for 16 years.
And he added that there was a gap in the reserves of nearly £100,000.
The Lib Dems took control of the council last May, following the local elections. It won 21 of the 25 seats, leaving just two Conservatives in their seats.
Since then, the party says that it has found a range of issues.
It said that it has replaced the accounts system used as the previous one was “old, outdated and not fit for purpose”.
The party had also rectified what it says were “serious staffing issues” that “put pressure on the smooth running of the council”.
And with the deficit, Cllr Jones said that his party “were very concerned that the reserves of the council were low” – £466,167, when it was felt to be closer to £560,000, or around two-thirds of the total precept collected by the town council.
There are also two areas where the council is planning to make changes.
It is pledging to spend more money on youth services, which it says had been cut by the Conservatives a few years ago and on the local environment.
And there will also be an investment to expand the Mays Lane cemetery, which Cllr Jones says is nearly at capacity
and “would be full in two years”.
He added: “This had been known about for several years. It’s incredible that no financial provision was made to pay for the Cemeteries desperately needed extension.
“We have ring-fenced part of the increase in Council Tax for Earley (precept) for the extension of the Cemetery.”
Surveying the overall position, Cllr Jones said: “Quite frankly, what we found was a mess that reflects very poorly on the previous Conservative leadership of Earley Town Council who had been running the council for 16 years.
“With the ring-fenced increase for the cemetery the increase in council tax for Earley Town council is 15p a week (£7.80 a year).
“The Lib Dem budget shows that they are running the councils finances responsibly, prudently and properly, a stark contrast to the previous Conservative leadership.”
But the figures were disputed by Dr Norman Jorgensen, who had been leader of Earley Town Council.
“I don’t recognise the description,” he said of the accusations made by the Lib Dems, adding that the reserves were significantly above the levels claimed. “We were running the council in a sound and efficient manner.”
“We had reserves for projects,” he said. “There was plenty of money in the budgets.”
And he felt that the Lib Dems had had an opportunity to have their say when the last Conservative-run budget was made, saying the process had started in the autumn of 2018.
“It went to a special budget working party meeting, and the budget could have been scrutinised,” he explained.
Over the cemetery expansion, he said that the Conservative-run administration had recognised the need to expand it, but only when it was necessary to do so.
“That’s what a town council does,” he said. “It is a confined site, we had plans to extend it, but also to maintain the site for as long as possible.”
He also said that there had been a change in staffing, which was normal for any organisation. “The new town clerk was building a new team,” he said.
And he added: “The Liberals are trying to put on changes that will put significant pressures on the council.
“I would hope they won’t leave the council how they did in Woodley Town Council, I would hope they’d be better than this. But there’s always a concern they’d do something amiss.”
