News

Councillors slow to spend cash for special projects in their areas

By Julie Spencer
January 25, 2013

Councillors have been slow to spend cash earmarked for special projects in their wards.

Almost half a million pounds was earmarked for the scheme in Bracknell Forest Council’s budget for 2009/10 with each councillor getting £10,000.

But by Christmas 2012, £83,728 was still unspent, prompting Councillor Mary Temperton to question if Bracknell Forest council tax payers knew the money was available.

At a meeting of the full council last night, Cllr Temperton submitted a question asking how the £420,000 scheme could be better publicised.

The cash is given to each ward councillor to spend to benefit residents, but current rules state purchases must not require further council funding or maintenance.

In Great Hollands, councillors pooled their cash to buy a minibus, give grants to schools, pay for a roofed area behind the community centre so the Mother and Toddler group can play outside in bad weather and brought an outdoor projector which can be hired out.

Speaking before the meeting, Cllr Temperton said: “This is rate payer’s money and rather than it sitting accruing no interest they should know it is available to spend.

“When I go along to the Mother and Toddlers and we are outside I like to think what a good thing we spent our money on.”

Wards where most of the money has been spent include Old Bracknell, Priestwood and Garth, Bullbrook, Harmans Water, Owlsmoor and Hanworth.

In Warfield Harvest Ride ward none of the three councillors have spent any of the £30,000 cash and the three councillors in neighbouring Binfield and Warfield have spent less than a third of their allocated cash with more than £20,000 still up for grabs.

Two members of Bracknell Forest Council’s executive Cllr Paul Bettison and Cllr Dale Birch still have more than £10,000 to spend in Little Sandhurst and Wellington while the College Town ward has benefited from a little over £25,000 spent between two councillors and Central Sandhurst have received a spend of £25,700.

Three Crown Wood councillors have around £9,000 left in the pot and Ascot ward councillors have spent less than half of their allocated cash.

Cllr Temperton said she would like to know if the rules for next year’s scheme could differ, with the cash being spent on employing people.

She said: “In the past it had to be a one-off spend with no maintenance but perhaps it could be spent on hiring a playleader or employing someone to run a youth club.”

n Let us know what you would like to see the money spent on in your ward by emailing bracknellstandardeditorial@trinitysouth.co.uk

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Most recent user comments 5 of 5

I don’t know if it’s the same as years ago that if the money isn’t spent in the space of a year, funding is cut the following year. Being sceptical about most things, I fear this is still the case. Great Hollands Square is a great example. I wonder if the money had to be quickly spent and so someone decided to spend it on a load of hideous large planters and scattered them around the square. They look horrendous and I did hear that there wasn’t any money in the pot to actually maintain them. Whoever browsed the planter catalogue for those must have been either on something or totally drunk to think they would enhance the area! Were the residents consulted as to what they feel the money should be spent on? Well I wasn’t! CCTV would have been a far better use of the money to at least make the area more usable and safer for the community rather than a place to avoid come dusk as the feral animals tend to emerge from their dens after dark and make the area a no go zone if you feel insecure in any way.

HK, bracknell
27/01/2013 at 15:50

I agree with you broadly @PoneRana and @Tom - there is a tendency among the wider civil service entities to spend whatever cash they're given or face losing it in following years budgets.

But as a resident in a part of Bracknell that seriously lacks any councillor visibility or seeming commitment, I have to say that this news at least suggests that these councillors are not engaging with their communities to see what they need.

I wasn't aware that such monies were available to help the communities - and I'm sure it's the case for a large part of Bracknell - that's the fault of the councillors.

Whether this money is spent or not will never lead to a reduction in council tax. A reduction in council tax will never happen full stop.

Council tax bands are based on 1991 values. The bands are years out of date and it's a political nailbomb waiting to go off for anyone that tries to update them - considering the average price for a 3 bed semi was £62K!

Councillors need to be engaging with their communities a lot more and communicating much more effectively. If they're not it's a dereliction of duty.

Winstanley, Bracknell
25/01/2013 at 16:03

i have a conflicted view on this ...... and as ever its probably only half the story.

WHY haven't Birch and Bettison spent the money - is it because of a lack of schemes, or a lack of schemes that represent value for money. ?? Or is it because they don't care? .... however, why spend money needlessly?

Just because they all have the money to spend, it doesn't follow that they should waste the money on pointless schemes. I'm sure the minibus that was purchased with a one-off grant had the backing of the recipients for the ongoing costs ...??

Tom Edwards, Bracknell
25/01/2013 at 14:33

These funds are made available for councillors to spend. It is typical wrong civil service thinking to suggest that these funds must be spent. Councillors who do not see the need to spend their allocation should be commended not criticised. What every one wants to see is a reeduction in council tax. Councillors are right to set an example to council departments by not spending un-necessary money and returning these funds to the exchequer.

PoneRana, Wokingham
25/01/2013 at 14:01

Well I fail to see how any of this comes as a surprise. Given the Conservative mafia are conspicuous by their absence in their wards. They don't give a fig about representation in this town or borough.

I must say I was struck by the news that Dale Birch and Betsy have failed to invest in community projects.

Is this the same Dale Birch who was banging on about benefits last week? Yet here he is not even lifting a finger to involve himself with the ordinary voters and citizens he is meant to represent.

Can't say I've seen much of his wife, or Will Davison, round these parts for aeons either.

Oh well, all grist to the mill come 2015.