An ‘existential crisis’ is facing County Hall, one councillor has said, as Isle of Wight Council members reacted to a bleak update on the authority’s finances.
The policy, finance and resources (PFR) committee responded to a presentation from deputy chief financial officer Adam Richens in which he said ‘some extremely difficult decisions’ will be needed to tackle a funding gap worth tens of millions of pounds.
Mr Richens said the Isle of Wight Council’s structural deficit, which is £20 million for 2026/27, could double in the next year to £40 million if left unchecked.
Cllr David Llewellyn, Reform UK chair of the PFR committee, said:
“It was my request that this be brought to the committee. When Adam first talked to me about this, I was horrified to be honest.
“I feel very strongly that this matter should be a cross-party situation. Politics should not be brought into this. The future of the Isle of Wight Council is in danger at the moment.
“We have to work together to resolve this situation. It’s too serious to play any games with this at all.”
On next steps, Mr Richens mentioned recognising the establishment of a Transformation and Improvement Board which he said was ‘voluntary’ but seen as ‘good practice’ for local authorities in the Isle of Wight Council’s current position.
He said an independent chair had been sourced for the board and a 17th July informal meeting had been scheduled with the council’s leader, the chair and vice-chair of the PFR committee and the authority’s leadership team.
A terms of reference for the board is then intended to be presented as part of a finance update report to the PFR committee in September, Mr Richens said.
Cllr Chris Jarman, leader of the All for Islanders group, said:
“Those members who are capable should be engaged on this right now and given the level of data access which affords them every opportunity to make progress without delay.
“This is the time for standing up, banging the table and saying this is an existential crisis for this council. And Bill (Cllr Nigh) said it himself, if we do not solve this – and the window to solve it is short – then we’re dead in the water.”
He said that decisions should be taken now rather than in September or the 4th quarter of the year.
Cllr Paul Fuller, of the Island First Network, said:
“As members we are politically elected by our constituents to be involved in this. If we are in a crisis position which we are it’s going to be us as members that are going to get it and not necessarily the officers.
“We need to be involved from the get-go.”
But independent councillor Karl Love cautioned against ‘rushing’ a response, telling councillors finance is one thing and impact is another.
“Everything does have to go through those service committees which does slow it down. We’ve got to consider the bigger impact in our individual committees.
“It has to be done that way because otherwise we’re just basing it on a financial situation only which is critical – I accept that – it’s been critical for a long time.”
For years and years this corrupt council have been on the take, buying up mainland properties, factory units etc and renting out at little or no profit, only now, once Reform have councillors are mostly in control is the truth coming out, about bloody time too. Bacons lies of the past are coming back to haunt him.
The Reform Party Chair on the council said only last night that this was a time for working together so indulging in political point scoring is unlikely to help. The Reform Councillors are nearly all new so struggling to get to grips with things. I don’t think they will be pulling any rabbits out of hats however much jingoism people indulge in here.
I’d hardly describe them as “struggling”. They have hit the ground running and started to tackle the issues that the previous administration were negligent in their lack of action.
Re one comment made in the article, the presumption that councillors were “politically voted in”, think again. I voted for the person I thought was most capable of doing good for the local area and not their political persuasions.
I think local elections shouldn’t even have a “party” mentioned on the local election ballot papers.
“Mr Richens said the Isle of Wight Council’s structural deficit, which is £20 million for 2026/27, could double in the next year to £40 million if left unchecked.”
How could this possibly be true?
Cast your minds back to the “Glory Days” of the early years in the Millennium.
2006 Council Leader Pugh and his Deputy Brown head hunt the £150,000 p.a. CEO Joe (AKA Vera) Duckworth, whose first act was to issue all Council employees with a baseball cap with the word “thinking” on the front, an action which got dear old Joe onto the front page of Private Eye.
Less than a year later, Joe had had enough of life in the slow lane and said he wanted to leave.
However, he had signed a contract which compelled him to stay until March 2008 at which time he cleared off with a fat cheque and said:
“When I joined the council in 2006 I saw it as my job to make necessary and radical changes to the way the council operated. These changes included embedding strong governance, putting in place proper financial controls and creating a clear vision of the future. They are now in place and the next stage of improvement for the authority will require turning that vision into the reality of a sustainable future for the Island”.
This was backed up by words from David Pugh, then Leader of the Council, “Joe has driven forward some very necessary improvements to the way the council operates which we will all benefit from far into the future. Joe has been a great chief executive with enormous energy and enthusiasm for doing the very best for the Island and its residents. I would like to place on record the authority’s appreciation for all he has achieved”.
As a Council tax payer, I would like to vehemently disagree!
Duckworth was also the driving force behind the total failure “Eco-Island” initiative which, perhaps by no co-incidence whatsoever, was voted through with a £400,000 budget in the full council. His comment: “I am immensely proud that I can leave the Island and the council having played my part in developing the exciting Eco Island vision.”
Meanwhile, under the watchful eyes of people like Cllrs Fuller, Peacey-Wilcox and Jones-Evans, who have a total of SIXTY ONE YEARS “service” between them, things have got so bad that Bankruptcy is almost inevitable.
Still never mind eh? We can always blame Reform!
Short of money do what the mainland do!
Parking permit charging islandwide will generate
loads of money
“ISLANDWIDE” of course
Local residents will have to pay annual permit charges to
park their heaps.
Many places on the mainland have been charging such charges
for over 30 years.
Introduce clean air zones etc etc
DON’T BE SHY!
Every little helps.
Maybe stop giving yourselves a pay rise
maybe top people in county hall shouldnt be given jobs that pay 100 grand a year!
council tax still goes up,and services that we pay for get worse!
Their salaries should be performance related.
The more they perform the more they get, being
they don’t achieve anything positive a pay deduction
is required.
Firstly no one woud take the job because most would be paying the council if it was based on performance.
My thoughts exactly
why is it numpties always get these jobs.
None of them have a clue what they are doing.
Like all councils country wide, they are run in the main by well meaning but ultimately unqualified people, these councillors and the majority of the salaried staff would never succeed in the private sector, just because they run a chip shop, or a bed and breakfast does not qualify them to oversee or even understand multi million pound budgets,It is far too easy to just say lets just borrow another ten million for our vanity projects and subsquent councils can find ways of paying it back.
We need REAL accountants controlling the spending
I don’t often agree with you,.. but on this, I think you’re spot-on
You’ve hit the nail on the head there. I’ve worked in the private and public sectors and I can categorically say many public sector employees wouldn’t last their probation in the private sector.
I’ve also noticed that the spending of public funds is scrutinised a lot less than if it were a company’s money, which likely contributes to the councils current situation.
So the council are getting the violin out yet many people
are on the fiddle evading parking charges 364 days of the
year by parking on the pavement outside the old tourist information centre opposite Sandown Pier, WAIT FOR IT
” IN A PEDESTRIANISED ZONE ”
Not to mention all the numpties parking outside the pier cafe
and opposite the pier on Double Yellow Lines.
Maybe you should provide the Council Civil Enforcement Officers
with a map so they know where to go each day to make a mint.
LAWLESS PARKING ON THE ISLAND IS RIFE AND THE STRANGE
THING IS NO ONE DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT!
Councils and politicians lost my respect years ago!
I cannot bear paying their wages if one is INCOMPETENT!
Sort it out F.F.S
Motorists who park a few minutes over their time along the
High Street get slapped with a ticket
WHILST MOTORISTS PARKING ILLEGALLY AND EVADING
PARKING TICKETS GET NO TICKETS
THERE IS A TWO TIER PARKING SYSTEM ON THE ISLAND AND
IT STINKS!
you really should try getting a life…
you’ve been banging on about all your useless ideas re. speed limits, cameras, parking permits etc for years now,.. & no-one listens, or cares a damn about your pathetic ranting.
However,.. recently, you seem to be getting worse and worse,.. so much so that I fear (hope) you’re going to have a heart attack, getting so stressed and worked up..
Perhaps you should just take some chill-pills, relax, & let it go.
your ranting will get you absolutely no where, except,perhaps, an early grave…
The island is a beautiful place but it is run by useless
lawless clueless numpties.
EVERYDAY I SEE RULES BEING BROKEN AND NO FCUKER
DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT!
They get their extortionate salaries, expenses and pensions
and don’t give a flying fart
Well said.
rant brought to you by king bellend “enough” who has nothing better than to troll. One could say a troll bellend. Bless.
Get over it. I suppose you are crying because
England got battered by the Argies
2-1
Lol
That’s what happens when you let people who are incompetent, overpaid and inexperienced try to look like they know how to run a council budget.
The Council need to realise the old cash cows have run dry. Can’t rely on business rates from empty shops. Tourism is our USP we should be encouraging anything which brings holiday makers over. Including free parking in every town.
I agree with the first part of your statement but strongly disagree with the second part relating to tourism,you cannot put all your eggs in one basket, Cornwall did and are nearly a billion in debt as a direct result of that strategy, tourism will succeed or fail on its merits, one wet summer or the ferries putting their prices up again or the cost of 99’s nthrough the roof and numbers will drop. Oddly with the temperatures hotter than the med numbers do not go up.
Good on the new Reform councillors asking yge right questions, the level of wastage and poor management within tge IWCC is staggering, from new 84inch TVs for county hall to costly quangos, and over recruitment by empire building management.
It all needs a root and branch review
The only thing that causes a financial crisis, is poor financial management, self feathering pay increases and waste of money spending on white elephants. The sick part of it is, us mugs will end up copping the bill as always
Enough is enough
That is why I called myself that.
You are spot on
This is a time for facing facts. 85% of local authority budgets go on children’s services and adult social care. If meaningful savings are to be made then those are the areas where greater efficiency much be sought. Both services are a statutory requirement so there must be proper provision but are there more cost effective ways of providing for the needs of children with special needs or who are looked after. In adult social care, it cannot be ignored that contracting out and privatisation have resulted in services that used to be provided by council employees now come through expensive private agencies and facilities.
Who cares when you’re spending other people’s money
Sure it will not stop them voting to increase there so called expenses rate yet again
That’s the problem when numpties are running the show.