With only a few weeks to go until the end of the financial year, the York Council says it will overspend by £3.7 million. Any deficit would be a charge on the Council’s reserves (which currently stand at £7 million)
Most of the deficit is blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Details can be found here
Council income has dropped with car parking revenue severely affected.
There are major overspends on children’s social work services including safeguarding vulnerable children with 93 local children currently subject to proceedings.
Adult social care could also overspend by £2.7 million.
There are also major pressures to bail out the indoor sports centres which are managed by GLL.
The council continues to have discussions with GLL over the cost of managing the centres during the year. The council has been required to fund the net cost of the facilities whist closed and GLL have suffered from reduced revenues when the facilities have been open during the year. The likely additional cost to the council is currently forecast to be c.£800k but the council and GLL are seeking Government / Sport England funding to mitigate this cost.
The main problems with Council housing relate to a repairs backlog and the lengthening time to relet empty properties.
The report contains a highly selective report on public service quality standards. It talks about the – entirely unsurprising – drop in bus usage.
It pointedly fails to mention the appalling decline in the standard of highway surfaces. Despite being reported long before the icy weather – and lockdown – commenced, potholes were only given cursory attention. The result now is that many carriageways are dangerous particularly for users of two wheeled transport.
& maybe part of the solution