Fife communities ‘punished’ by crackdown on council spending

At the policy and coordination committee, Neil Crooks raised concerns that no new budget requests were being allowed at area committee level.

Cllr Crookssaid that the area committes saw a lot of anti-poverty funding requests in January and February – but it appeared council staff were under instruction that no new spending should take place before the end of the financial year.

Eileen Rowand, executive director for finance and corporate services, told councillors: “There was a review in all expenditure and actions included delaying all projects until the new financial year.

Michael Enston, executive director for communities, is looking at a £1.8m overspend and all directors must reach a balanced budget, which includes looking at slowing down spend.”

However, Cllr Crooks, who chsairs Kirkcaldy area committee, said: “It’s within the area budget. It’s not over spent – we don’t usually get close to overspending.

You may also be interested in:

Fife man grabbed boy and threw him down stairs

Car hits house in Kirkcaldy

Plans for 100-ft whale sculpture in Fife town move forward

“This is for anti-poverty measures, which is critical to what we do at local level. It might be an over interpretation by officers.”

He was backed by Councillor Linda Erskine who added: “We haven’t been told, as area conveners, that this is a problem and that’s not acceptable to do. Some £1.8m of unachieved savings are from previous years, and we’re not making savings until 2022 – so our communities are going to suffer for two years and I don’t think that’s acceptable to find out fourth hand.

“Our local community budgets are still there to be used for those purposes. The incapability of managers not able to make savings is not acceptable. I’m in an area of huge poverty and we’re trying to spend our money wisely to support them. All area chairs deserve a face to face meeting and the ability to pursue the the poverty initiatives in our communities.”

She added: “I understand we are in a difficult position, but don’t punish our communities because of that.”