Worthing Labour councillors have this week admitted that their budget is off track and is projected to be heading for a £1.8M overspend by the end of the financial year 2023/24. This was the headline from the first quarter revenue monitoring report presented to the council's Strategic Sub-Committee chaired by Council Leader Beccy Cooper on Tuesday 12th September.
Presented by Cllr John Turley, the cabinet member for Resources, he reported that at the end of the first 3 months of this year budget that they had identified a £1.8m overspend by year end, caused by a number of factors, including an overspend of £476k on interest charges, caused by delays in them selling key development sites. He quoted Teville Gate, Southdownview Road and the Caravan and Camping Club site amongst them.
Council Leader Beccy Cooper later described this overspend as a 'big black hole' when justifying spending Council money against other projects.
In the report submitted by the council's Assistant Director for Finance it identified that,
'The level of earmarked reserves will reduce if they are required to meet the overspends currently forecast for the year. This is a particular issue for Worthing where the level of available reserves will be reduced significantly. The predicted level of reserves undermines the council’s financial stability and potentially puts Worthing Council in an unsustainable financial position'.
(extract from para 4.13.3 page 37)
Cllr Elizabeth Sparkes (Offington) said, ‘It is unbelievable how the Labour Administration have decimated the Council’s financial stability in such a short space of time. The previous Conservative Administration left the Council in a strong and robust position with plans for regeneration and investment in the town. The Labour Party has undermined previous projects, for example, the deal agreed on the redevelopment of Teville Gate. Their refusal to work with the agreed partner has cost the Council hundreds of thousands of pounds in totally unnecessary interest payments. For Labour to be plundering the town’s financial reserves in the way they suggest is nothing short of scandalous. It is very convenient for them to blame the Government for lack of funding but Local Authorities were asked in 2018 to fund their own services which the Conservative Administration had successfully done for 5 years before Labour ran the Council’s finances into the ground. This, of course, will ultimately cost the taxpayer.’
In the meeting, Mr Turley was challenged by Cllr Kevin Jenkins (Goring) and Cllr Hazel Thorpe (Tarring) on a number of issues, after which the Labour cabinet members failed to offer any tangible solutions to correct the financial mess that Worthing Borough Council is now facing.
Cllr Kevin Jenkins, leader of the Conservative group on Worthing Borough Council said; 'This was a shameful show by this Labour administration, they have by their own admission, been slow in taking action. They have slowed or stalled financial capital projects that would have kept this council's income and finances on track. Even Cllr Cooper as leader of the council admitted in the meeting that they can no longer claim to be a 'new administration' that it is now their policy and decisions that are affecting Worthing.'
He went on to say:
'The statement from the assistant Director for Finance in their report is stark - 'The predicted level of reserves undermines the Councils financial stability and potentially puts Worthing Council in an unsustainable financial position'. How have Labour allowed themselves to get in this position? There are councils up and down this country of all political persuasion who are dealing with similar issues on a daily basis; yet this Labour administration simply cannot control their spending and cannot make sound financial decisions. It is the tax payers in Worthing who will pay the price for this failure.'
