Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Harborough Tories screw up again


The impression, formed by their handling of the waste collection service, that the Tory group running Harborough District Council does not have the faintest idea what it is doing has just been strengthened.

The Leicester Mercury reported yesterday that their is confusion over the council tax rise that local residents are facing this year:

In February councillors in Harborough agreed an average 2.5% increase, but demands received by more than 30,000 households have shown many are actually facing an increase of 3.7%. However, tax payers living in Market Harborough, more than a quarter of the population of the borough, are facing only a 1.8% increase.

The difference has been caused by the council finishing paying for the Harborough Leisure Centre.

The cost of the Northampton Road complex was paid through a system called special expenses. The bulk of the cost was borne by council tax payers in the town and surrounding villages.

The need for a two-tier increase was not spelled out in detail in figures presented to the open session of the council on February 25.

There is nothing sinister about the figures here. I wrote about the special expenses when I explained how Market Harborough got a new swimming pool.

But it is clear that the council has made a hash of presenting the figures to the people of the District. Why didn't the officers spell out the new figures in their report to council? And why didn't the ruling Conservative group notice?

2 comments:

dreamingspire said...

Gently, gently might I ask if the other parties noticed?

Jonathan Calder said...

All I know is that it would never have happened in my day.

We referred the budget report back one year. The officers were furious.