BACK in May, we were told the new 'super-council', set to replace the existing county and district councils, would save £17million.
Now we can see that after being rubbished by the local government Minster John Healey only last month, that the county has a black hole in its finances.
In fact, the county is £55million in the red and, of course, there is no mention of the pensi
on deficit and the equal pay which is to be implemented and backdated. This is following the huge pay rises and golden handshakes given to its chiefs of staff (one of which has since resigned).
Now that the dust is settling, we can see what a mess the county finances are in and what a big confidence trick the new unitary council is.
A large majority voted against it in a referendum, which the government also chose to ignore. The unitary is NOT what the public wanted.
The whole country under this Labour Government has been conned for more than ten years with their tax (waste) and spend.
We have been very fortunate in Alnwick district in having a council that spends your money wisely. Now we will very soon be facing a large rate increase just to stand still.
Each county councillor has been allocated £15,000 to spend on their pet projects. I would like to recommend that this should go towards filling this massive hole this would mean that £15,000 by 67 councillors would be more than £1million in the first year.
The scrapping of the six district councils will leave a huge gap in the way that local communities are serviced across the county.
It is important that the new unitary council understands this and has the courage to involve local parishes and town councils in the decision making.
The new council for Northumberland now has real opportunity to devolve real power to parishes and town councils and must be at the forefront of the new unitary structure, which will replace the existing set-up of district and borough councils.
Parish and town councils are established in four of the six districts. They do not exist in Blyth Valley or Wansbeck. These councils already have the power to provide additional services for these localities and should be consulted about all local issues that affect their areas.
Where we have very small parish councils, or none at all, it should be possible to incorporate these areas in the nearest functioning parish or town council.
Coun Leslie Bilboe
Amble West
The full article contains 428 words and appears in Northumberland Gazette newspaper.
