MONEY, MONEY, MONEY 2022 Part 2

Last week, we finished our reflection on councils’ spending on the employment topic. The Freedom of Information Act request has revealed that employment within our Shirebrook Town Council overshadows the largest Council in the region and even the combined strength of many councils at once. So this week, let’s take a closer look at how much we spend on council wages.

PAYROLL COSTS IN COUNCILS


Yes, I know. It looks catastrophic even when we assume that Shirebrook residents agree to higher taxes to maintain the Leisure Center. Apart from Clowne- the only difference between our town and Bolsover and South Normanton is the Leisure Center. So why is payroll spending so bloated in Shirebrook? We will not solve this mystery until the people of Shirebrook change the people of the Town Hall. The Labor Party sees nothing wrong with having such a bloated wage budget. What’s more, for a moment, Cllr Steve Fritchley suggested hiring another person as Park Keeper.

The saddest thing is that, according to my information, STC employees do not earn as nicely as it looks “on paper”. Their pay rises have been below inflation for years, so their purchasing power weakens yearly. This is because there are too many “on payroll” workers for those who work to be paid decent wages. To change this, the town would have to be run by someone not afraid to make difficult decisions and look for money where no one has looked in years. In a word – someone new. Even from Labour – but new. The old authorities don’t have the ambition to be better-they’ve been getting positions effortlessly for decades, so why should they try to change anything?

At this point, you might be guessing that since we are spending so much more on wages, non-wage costs will also be higher. If that is what you think, then, of course, you are right.

OTHER COST


Here the picture is somewhat distorted by the extraordinary expenditure at Elmton associated with the construction of the new Leisure Centre (or skate park- I’m not sure). However, I must admit that STC has been able to “turn the tap”, and the expenditure does not look as bad as in previous years. I don’t know whether this is because someone has finally started to analyse the cash book carefully or that STC has finally realised that you can’t keep increasing taxes indefinitely. One day you have to come to your senses and cut spending. But the fact remains- Elmton had to build a mega-building to trump STC’s spending. STC, which has made no investment, still clearly leads the rest of the pack.

COMBINED COSTS
The most depressing of all is the combined expenditure graph. Here, not even the construction of the new Leisure Centre in Elmton can distract from the fact that a river of taxpayer money is pouring through STC. What do you think- are the current leaders of the town proud looking at these charts? I wouldn’t be.


Now that we know how much we are spending, it would be helpful to look at how much money is left in the individual authorities’ bank accounts for the coming year.

YOUR POCKET HAVE A BOTTOM
No matter how deep the authorities push their hand into the taxpayer’s pocket, they will reach the bottom sooner or later. The same with your pocket. Those who are spending money indiscriminately today are in for a brutal winter. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing well or poorly now- Russia’s current tactic is to get to the winter and create chaos in Europe by pumping energy costs. But before that happens- let’s look in the pockets of the Councils in Bolsover. How are those who run our towns preparing for the most challenging winter in decades?

I’ll admit frankly that I don’t know how Bolsover’s account suddenly grew by such a sum of money. Maybe some subsidies related to Covid or a big land sale. I don’t know, and to be honest, I don’t know anyone at Bolsover whom I could ask. However, apart from the unusual increase in savings in Bolsover- the rest of the Councils look like they are balancing on the edge of a precipice.

From my research, there are two schools of thought. According to the first- the Council’s financial reserve should equal the annual Precept. According to the second school, the reserve should equal ½ Precept. However, from my internet search, there is no strict law on this issue. Anyway- whichever school of thought one adopts: Shirebrook is at the limit of the recommended reserve, or we are as much as 50% short of the required level. This is a disaster that Labour is ignoring and residents are unaware of. Question: when people start running out of money due to rising living and energy costs- what will they stop paying: the gas/electricity bill or the council bill? I am far from alarmist in tone, but it seems our reserves should be higher.

NEXT WEEK IN MONEY
There is a saying- you have to spend money to make money. Shirebrook spends incomparably more than any other population centre in the region, so, in theory, our town’s income should be significantly higher than that of the other towns. We will look at this in detail. Finally, we will analyse which Councils closed the fiscal year with a loss and which with a profit.