Bedford Borough Councillor Roger Rigby has slammed the Council’s Liberal Democrat Mayor for failing to realise planned savings within the Council’s leisure services portfolio, which is set to cost taxpayers £628k.
The hole in the Council’s finances was revealed at the Council’s recent Corporate Services Committee. A proposal to secure £370k of cost savings at the Council’s leisure sites has not been delivered due to delays resulting from the current tender exercise. The saving now forecasted for this year is only £62k. This failure to save £308k follows the earlier fiasco when the Liberal Democrats announced the Bunyan Centre’s closure and then reversed the decision, which left them needing to find another £320k.
Cllr Rigby, who is a Conservative representative of Bromham & Biddenham Ward said;
‘Mayor Hodgson and his Liberal Democrat administration have shown staggering financial incompetence by their failure adequately to budget and plan for the future of the Council’s leisure services.
‘The Council’s leisure sites are absolutely vital to the Borough’s residents. It is essential that such financial incompetence to the tune of £628k does not put these leisure facilities at risk. We support the retention of our leisure sites.’