The Isle of Wight Council could be left with just £2million to spend before it hits serious financial trouble, it has been revealed, as the anticipated budget approaches.
With the cost of living crisis continuing and added inflationary pressures, the authority is facing a challenge to balance its budget — which has a £22million funding gap.
The council has anticipated raising council tax by five per cent to increase its income and cover areas where there are financial challenges.
Any less of an increase, the authority has said, would mean even deeper cuts to services.
Through various sources and funds, the gap can shrink to £10.4million but further action needs to be taken before the council can approve it in February.
In an update given to the authority’s corporate scrutiny committee earlier this week, the council’s director of finances, Chris Ward said he believed the council can deliver a balanced budget but it may have to rely on its saving reserves to do so.
Doing so, he said, would reduce the council’s financial resilience as it may not be able to address known or unknown risks in the future.
Currently, the council has £12million in its reserves but would be reduced to £9million — with the £3million being used to offset some of the cost pressures.
The authority must maintain at least £7million in its reserves before intervention has to be taken — meaning if the reserves were to be reduced there would only be £2million available should something happen.
To mitigate the risk, Mr Ward has advised the council make £3million of savings, instead of £2million, in the next year.
If the council were to dip below the £7million reserves level, Mr Ward would have to serve the authority a Section 114 notice meaning it bans all new spending with the exception of protecting vulnerable people, statutory services and pre-existing commitments.
Mr Ward has also warned the authority would have to mitigate and ration the money services have asked for to meet the additional cost pressures.
Overall, services have requested more money than is available, nearly double the amount.
So basically they have money troubles and we have to bail them out by paying more council tax so they can carry on spending
What a load of rubbish. Get rid of Jordan and the rest of the useless bunch and stop giving money to the stupid floating bridge, signs to tell people it is working, and paying out for events that on-one asked for or wanted. Jeeeez are this lot corrupt or what. Stop giving yourselves a big pat on the back, your a failing council admit and just go.
Here is a saving. Dump the floating fiasco and stop digging up our roads.
Services need to be slashed to the bone, section 114 implemented permanently and they need to cut down on council bloat.
They need to stop rolling out this poverty story every year to justify stealing more money from island resident council tax payers
The council need to learn to say “no” to the demands for money – they are quick to say “no” to us when we demand refunds and reductions – so they can refuse to hand out money to anyone.
they can save a million a year by not paying for taxi’s for SEN kids – the parents can pay, after all, they are their kids.
carl love said three people are costing the council a million a year in care on their own – well, cut it, there is no justification for spending that much.
Totally agree. And they could cut down hugely on giving council tax discounts to a lot of the benefit scroungers who have never done a day’s work in their life and live off council handouts.
But in your next breath you want the council to re home your mother,
Hypocrite……?
There’s a very big difference between people who have worked all their lives and paid their taxes who genuinely need help, and people who have never done a day’s work in their life and expect to have everything handed to them on a plate. If the council were to re-home my mother and I, we would pay our own rent, not claim off the council for it. No hypocrisy there at all. Or are you one of the spongers, you nasty little man?
If the council were to dip below the £7million reserves level
dip below it Mr Ward, don’t come here with the begging bowl, demanding more money from residents, when you have millions in the coffers – spend it and stop whining – we aren’t paying for your profligacy and just so that you can hand money to deadbeats, spongers and leeches, hand over fist.
Council go woke, council go broke…
Well that’s your new heating system and led lighting out of the window then , if it’s that tough you can’t possibly waste anymore of our money……?????
I am sure that you can make cuts within the council itself, ie over inflated pension pot, then of course money ( our money from the floating junk ) you supposedly feel OK not to divulge!!!!!
Seriously when a problem arises , look to you’re own back door , because that’s where the problem lays/ starts …
Everybody’s wallets/ purses have moths in now …..No excuses stop wasting our money!
Hardly a surprise announcement which happens every year a couple of months before the demand for large Council Tax increases, preceded by the usual “haven’t we done a great job for you” announcements by various Council Portfolio Leaders.
Why not look inward within the Council for savings, like not appointing Deputy Leaders, getting the Council Legal Department to actually undertake work rather than second Legal work outside the Council. Still I’m sure the vast undisclosed settlement for the Floating Bridge which the Council seem quite happy with could be used to offset these continued annual bleats for the Council Taxpayer to bail them out due to their lack of due diligence – think £250,000 recently not pursued by the Council Legal team.
Like many councils throughout the country the isle of wight is in trouble, they have committed themselves to projects and support well outside of their core functions, they are always looking for more ways to squeeze money out of the residents. Like all good household budgeting you start with within, can we cut our spending, but councils do not think like that, They lack financial oversight other than from within which is never a good practice and would not be tolerated in private business. I have never known a council like the isle of wight that hides behind opaque decisions on spending.
We’re all in hard time why should they be different cut back like we’re all having to do to survive .
Hang on a minute, weren’t the incompetent evil tories kicked out at the last elections? All the same whoever is in charge. Clueless, pretentious, power loving………
It is wrong that you are forced to pay c/tax by law yet we have no say how spent and council can improve things for themselves ( purchase electric cars,new lap tops, mobile phones and computer software, chairs and desk’s,new windows and boiler at county hall,pay huge salaries, consultants etc,wasted millions on PPE for COVID preventing others that needed – it’s now being dumped as out of date etc) while those forced to pay are living in cold damp homes, food banks etc. Transport for SEN children should be council staff driving mini- busses collecting 10/12 Children not 1 in a taxi, plenty of low paid staff that would like extra hour’s.
Save millions but cutting back what you spend on yourself IOW council not steal from already poor.
In the ’70s, I remember the bright yellow ‘banana’ buses which would collect children and take them to the special school in Newport. That is so much cheaper than paying for taxis.
£350,000 wasted on a cycle event that was cancelled with no underwritten insurance to stop our money being squandered and now they say we will all have to dig even deeper.
I worked in procurement for several years in the UK, France, Germany & the US. Every contract I negotiated had a clause, a so-called ‘insurance’ should the vendor be unable to fulfil the contract. When I read the article about the loss of £350,000 and that County Hall cannot get its money back, I started to smell something fishy.
Doesn’t County Hall not have qualified procurement managers? Even if staff working in County Hall procurement don’t have CIPS qualifications, common sense tells you not to pay money out without a clause written into the contract to protect your investment.
Does anyone know if members from County Hall had an ‘invested interest’ in the company which organised the event?
Means test all the poncers who are getting more in free handouts than a workman is earning. they pay nothing into the community least of all council tax. if they can afford drugs and booze and taxi’s to go shopping, .they can afford to pay council tax, and make those who are living in fancy lodges on so called holiday parks pay as well, they are getting out of paying too. Stop blowing our tax on useless white elephant projects to get yourselves a name attached to it. There you are, there’s a few ideas that you are too incompetent to work out for yourselves to put to the test. Oh, and stop squandering our money on that useless tub, and use the money that you got from it being useless that you kept quiet from us knowing the amount.
Oh boy, the bleaters are out in force.
Wake up and smell the coffee. Council tax is going up and you are going to be paying it. Squealing impotent demands won’t make a difference.
And it doesn’t matter who is in charge, either. Tories, “Alliance”, Labour, Lib-Dem? Makes no difference. Council tax will go up by the maximum amount allowed and services will be cut.
The core reason is because the amount of cash we get from Central Government has been slashed (voted for by Seely, twice) and pays no heed to the additional costs of providing services on an island.
And there is no sign of Bullshite Bob’s promised Island deal.
guess you are a sponger then smiffy as you refer to others as paying
Actually I’m quite comfortably off. I was referring to the bleaters having to pay. I’m not bleating about the council because I understand that it would be the same whoever was running it.
ahh so you are the worst kind – a champagne socialist, that preaches virtue and inclusion, so long as you don’t have the impact of it in your back yard –
When are we going on strike to stop paying Council Tax?
Go right ahead and try it.
You will just wind up having a Court Order slapped on you to take it directly from your wages or pension.
Sell the 20 pool cars for Council staff sat unused today in the Council car park. Replace with bus vouchers/cards.
Either you are lying or you are some weirdo who not only knows there are 20 pool cars, but also keeps an eye on when they are being used.
Just a bit creepy and stalky, that.
20 ,more like 40 plus vans and many electric too.
Great way to balance the books
Set up a clamping business and anyone who parks illegally on pavements
Clamp them, get them towed away you would make fortunes.
Also increase Council Tax by the number of vehicles an Household owns.
I am fed up returning home from work because some households have 3 or more vehicles
parked along the Road.
Any official clamping business would spend all its time and revenue defending itself against those who can afford lawyers and believe they are entitled to do exactly as they like.
But I like the idea of a Council Tax premium for multiple vehicles
It’s the fairest way.
Many Households bring home work vehicles too, clogging up island roads and
Streets and they pay no extra.
Yes, that bloomin’ orange flatbed truck parked on the pavement along Great Preston Road & Preston Close, Ryde. Tax it at the max.
That vehicle is a hindrance. You cannot see vehicles approaching from the right when attempting to manoeuvre out of Preston Close into Great Preston Road.
If an accident occurs
IW Council are too blame.
They have a duty of care to make Roads, Streets and Pavements safe for
everyone.
Sadly they employ a load of lazy individuals who do not understand
Health and safety.
Where is the Highways dept for Ryde
are they blind, (or don’t they know where Great Preston Road is)
Great Preston Road outside the Council Houses, due to idiots parking on
pavements is an Accident waiting too happen.
Double Yellow lines is the only answer.
Then if the idiots park on the yellow lines they can be fined and hopefully
Towed away.
Keep Island Roads and Streets safe.
And there’s the old builder Matey who lives in the Council Houses along
Great Preston Road always got a vehicle parked on the pavement.
He thinks he owns the Road.
Stefan
Great Preston Road is an heavily used Road and it should be possible
for traffic to flow smoothly and safely.
Double Yellow lines wouod help the flow.
With motors parked on both sides of the Road it brings traffic to a standstill.
Buses, coaches lorries and Fire Engines constantly use this Road, hence
IW Council need to ACT.
Also the morons who own the yellow Vauxhall Corsa who
Permanently park on the pavement outside the Council Houses
making it awkward for motors to pass each other without one having to
Come to a Complete stop and making it dangerous for pedestrians.
It only takes a few selfish idiots to make other people’s lives difficult.
IW Council need to grow a pair and confront these families.
Teach them right from wrong.
Except it isn’t actually illegal to park on a pavement unless it is causing an obstruction:
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/parking.html
The relevant section:
“244
You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.”
Note the difference between “MUST NOT” (London only) and “should not” (elsewhere). “MUST NOT” means enforced by law. “should not” is merely good practice.
I expect persons to use common sense and think of others.
Sadly in this world that’s becoming a thing of the past.
Therefore laws have to be set to STOP IDIOTS doing what they want.
Too much money given out to scroungers, wasters and people who never do a days work.
And whilst that statement may apply to those on Benefits, I am primarily referring here to 90% of those on the books at the council.
Bit of a blinkered view Valerie. There are many staff in the Council who work damn hard to ensure services are met. And generally they are the lower paid staff. Yes, have a pop at the top end earners, some wages of which are questionable, but please do not tar all Council workers with the same brush.
While on the subject of saving money. Why do councils give ‘financial handouts’ to those who leave a post, either on their own accord or when they are removed for doing a shitty job?
Apart from redundancy, why should public servants receive a financial payout for just leaving a post?
This is one way the council can save money.
I commented on this subject earlier that good housekeeping starts with restricting your services to your core responsibilities especially in hard times, now I see that that freshwater council through us the council tax payers are spending 120 thousand pounds on a new skate park and punp track, where we asked, I do not thonk so, and if a parish council has 120 thousand sitting around in the bank they should remiting it back to the isle of wight council or atleast not taking any precept from their residents.
Cut your salaries, you don’t need all that money, and your expense account as well.
IW Council could not balance a bunch of banana’s on a set of scales.
Sounds to me like they lost millions on the floating tub deal, that’s why they don’t want us to know what the amount was and has all been hushed up. Now, all us mugs are going to be screwed over to make up the odds for yet again THEIR incompetent b*lls up. Don’t forget that is OUR money they are squandering on useless crap, while WE go cold and hungry. Absolutely bloody stinks doesn’t it?
Let’s go back to unpaid councillors, we would be much better represented.Paying our present council is a complete waste of money.I wonder how many will vote for a big pay rise.