Frinton: In Bloom calls for spare cash

11:00am Friday 16th May 2008

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COUNCILLORS are calling for money saved by council departments to be spent on In Bloom organisations across Tendring.

Over the past few years, cash from the council's small schemes budget has been spent on In Bloom groups across the district, but this year the budget has been split up - with £2,000 being given to each councillor to allocate to community projects.

Last year, Tendring Council underspent by £1.058 million compared to its predicted budget and the council's corporate management scrutiny committee wants £10,000 of that to pay towards In Bloom.

Sarah Candy (Con, Lawford) highlighted that the council's corporate performance department underspent by £91,000, which Karen Neath, head of financial services, said was largely due to a number of efficiency savings delivered via the use of computer technology.

Another saving came when the benefits department estimated the cost of a replacement folding and inserting machine would cost £50,000, when it actually cost £26,000.

Peter Halliday (Con, St John's) hit out at heads of services for wasting the time of the committee, which spent 2 days reviewing the council's budget last year, by over-estimating how much money they need.

The committee has now called on the council's cabinet to make money available for In Bloom to stop the expectation that councillors should fund it from their £2,000 budget for community projects.