| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Proposed closure of Wandsworth Museum | |
| Posted by: | Tony Belton | |
| Date/Time: | 01/02/07 18:36:00 |
| Readers will be interested in the following link to the Council's website: http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/moderngov/Published/C00000296/M00002584/AI00004730/$COUNCILQUESTIONS31107.doc.pdf It is a question I put to the Leader of the Council (it has John Farebrother's name associated for procedural Council reasons) about the potential budget for 2007/8. You will see in the unusually frank reply from Councillor Lister that a Council Tax increase of 3.8% would be sufficient to cover the budget shortfall and to pay for current expenditure such as the Museum and BAC. If you disentangle the figures further this is equivalent to a shortfall of £2.3 million and not the fabled £5 million that Cllr Lister keeps talking about and which is in Brightside - leaving aside whether the Government should be expected to fund the totality of inflation, something that no other Government of either political persuasion has ever done. This means, as I and a few others have said before, that next year and the year after are OK. It is 2009/10 and 2010/11 that the Tory Council is concerned about - the second of these is of course Council Election year. To be fair (why should I be?) I was very clear in the question and he in the reply that this was based on the Director of Finance's assumptions at the time of writing the report. Since then Bank Rate has gone up 0.25% and the Director has been become more pessimistic about both inflation and Government grant. However, if inflation were to stabilise or drop back; if Government grant regimes were to change; if there were a different Chancellor; if the Council Tax was pushed up 5% each year,; if; if. I suspect many would argue that to close the Museum and BAC precipitately now when one has a 2/3 year gap before some hypothetical financial crisis might hit us is premature - consultations and negotiations should start now with a promise to review in early 2008. |