A proposal to formally raise concerns over Bedford Borough Council’s failure to meet budget savings and the impact on future finances was rejected last week (13 March).
During the Budget and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the chair, cllr Michael Headley (Lib Dem, Putnoe), said: “In the report we’ve got before us tonight, there’s unachieved savings of £950,000.
“And then we’ve got another £750,000 in the new year of procurement savings.
“We’ve had two years of failing to deliver the savings from procurement strategic sourcing that have rolled forward and each year we’ve added some more.
“We’re rolling forward unachieved savings from the current year just making that target even bigger and even harder to achieve,” he said.
He argued that the lack of transparency over budget savings was also a concern, pointing out that £779,000 worth of planned investments had been dropped without explanation.
“There should certainly have been more transparency around the fact that things that were in the budget are now not going to be done,” he said.
“It may have been the right decision not to progress with these, but there should have been transparency around that.”
Cllr Headley proposed that the committee raise concerns to the Executive about the delivery savings of in 24/25 and the knock-on impact both in financial terms and in confidence of the savings for delivery in 25/26.
“[And] concern that if there’s an overspend, the general fund balance in the coming year will be below the risk assessed level,” he said.
However, the proposal failed by four votes to three.
“Well, it’s interesting that the committee obviously has more confidence than I do in the delivery of savings next year,” Cllr Headley said.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
