June 24: Cuts begin to bite at County Hall
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So,
now we know. Or at least we know a little bit more about how KCC
intends to make £15m of savings from its budget this year. The
detail is somewhat opague and you'd be hard pressed to make any
sense of the report setting out where it intends to scale back
spending but at least it's a start - of sorts.
According to Cllr John Simmonds, the finance
cabinet member in charge, the cost-cutting package will spare key
frontline services. it may well do but there's a hefty chunk being
taken out of planned transport schemes (£4.1m) and a rather shrewd
move, dare I say populist, to axe spending on speed cameras. It
might buy some goodwill from motorists but not much.
How the £15m axe will fall>>>
KCC has some room for manouvere though because money it had
earmarked for various schemes is no longer needed because the
government has abandoned them.
Cllr Simmonds has been candid enough to admit that the pain will
come further down the line when the council faces up to the 25 per
cent cuts the government has announced.
Even County Hall's legendary ability to streamline its services
and do things efficiently might just be stretched by that.
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How many schools in Kent have expressed an interest in becoming
academies? No-one apart from the Department for
Education apparently knows and schools secretary Michael
Gove isn't saying so KCC has had to resort to lodging a
Freedom of Information request to solicit the
detail.
Glad to see that County Hall has recognised the virtues of the
legislation.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One of the dilemmas for KCC is working out exactly how much
money it stands to lose if schools do bid for and become
academies.
At the moment, schools have to hand back money to pay the costs
of various support services offered by the authority but as
academies would be able to hang on to that quota of their
budgets.
The issue was considered by councillors yesterday at a meeting
of KCC's cabinet scrutiny committee, when there was evidently some
concern at the financial consequences to the authority, which has
been throwing lots of awkaward questions at civil servants and
seemingly not getting many helpful replies.
Cabinet member for schools Sarah Hohler was frank in her
assessment, saying "it is very difficult to make a judgement about
the impact on the budget if a lot of schools do leave the
authority. Frankly,it is very unsettling for schools, they do not
know where they stand."
Unfortunately, KCC officials have their work cut out crunching
the numbers. There are 32 separate budget headings relevant to the
money it holds to pay for its support services. Calculators at the
ready.
Thursday, June 24 2010
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