I’ve seen a few posts on facebook in a local group about my local council having a £6m shortfall, under the freedom of information act a request was asked to explain (the information minister has also intervened) as three times the information hasn’t been supplied (still waiting).

Ontop of this the council is lending a private company £4m of taxpayers money to demolish and build a private hotel (why isn’t a bank doing the lending?).

Heres one local link:

http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/news/11299472.Trafford_Council_to_launch_investigation_into___6_million_budget_shortfall/?ref=ms

Is there any grounds (yet) for a Police investigation of some sort?

The council is making £24m cuts this year to local services which is going down well round here…

Local council in scam and fraud shocker. They are more corrupt and morally bankrupt. My Local council leaders awarded themselves cash bonuses (tax free) and the chief exec drove a leased porsche

My Local council leaders awarded themselves cash bonuses (tax free) and the chief exec drove a leased porsche

How can they award themselves ‘tax free’ bonuses if its cash? Chief exec would get a car allowance I would imagine, surely they can spend it how they please?

Mr Parry-Jones quit his post as chief executive (Pembrokshire), ten months after it was revealed he received more than £45,000 in cash payments in lieu of pension contributions.

He also ended up with a £280k severance pay.
He was driving a £900/ month Porsche Panemera.

He was driving a £900/ month Porsche Panemera.

If it’s anything like the NHS lease car scheme, where they pay only for the mileage you do for work, he’d be paying something like £800/month of that himself.

The leader appears to be a 12-year-old, so it’s not entirely surprising. There’s probably a Haribo mountain at the Town Hall.

Local Government Ombudsman might be the appropriate port of call over the private loan thing, but it sounds like the chickens are coming home to roost over the deficit. It’s the sort of thing that can’t really be avoided post April.

I don’t understand – I thought only the Conservatives were able to bring probity to local government? Surely the reporter has got their facts wrong?

Our Conservative local govenrment is investing loadzamoneyyyyyyyy in infrastructure projects.

I’m all for Keynsian economics, but a lot of it seems to have been on giviong the town center a new facade and dveloping a load of expensive flats. Maybe the sums do infact add up but I’m suspicious as to who exactly benifited from the town center being spruced up, as far as I can see it’s the developer who owned the flats.

There’s also a new bridge over the M4 (and making the existing one 2 lanes one way), about 500m from another bridge that’s not used apart from as a cycle path, surely a cheaper option would have been to re-open that!

Sounds like the budget shortfall is a completely separate issue to the rights or wrongs of the infrastructure lending.

Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs column might be a good starting place in terms of media, as they can pick through any pre-election bullshit.

@ wanmankylung

NHS Wut ?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389609/NHS-troubleshooter-given-free-Porsche-exotic-holiday-sued-250-000.html

Yep, Private Eye. They love corruption.