Thursday 1 December 2011

Council spending priorities

Carmarthenshire's capital spending programme for the next three years was discussed by the Executive Board on Monday this week. The report can be found here.

Times are obviously tough and going to get tougher, with the council desperately looking for savings anywhere and everywhere except where it matters most if you are a council officer.

The capital spending programme for the next three years shows spending on roads, road safety and coastal defences running at £7.8m, of which a new multi-storey car park in Llanelli will swallow £1.2m.

At the same time, items tucked away under the grey and anodyne heading of "Corporate" will take £9.1m. Corporate does not include the council's IT services, which will take a further £1.7m over the period.

On closer inspection it turns out that the £9.1m is to be spent on upgrading and maintaining the council's vast and growing collection of offices.

While the council is starting to shed jobs, it continues to take on more office space, with money being found in the budget to take on new luxury office space in the East Gate development in Llanelli.

Good to see they have got their priorities sorted out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Council offices have become a highly political tool in the officer's armoury.

The Council's Recreation Department was based at Ty Nant at Parc Trostre, Llanelli. When it started to dawn on them that the Scarlets would not be able to afford their new stadium they moved the department's offices into the stadium to provide more income for the club, even though the Council paid for most of the stadium.