Speaking at a meeting of the highways and transport committee on Thursday, 19th September, Councillor Craig Browne expressed his frustration at the overspending of some committees.
Cheshire East Council is currently forecasting an overall overspend of £26.5m at the end of 2024/5 - mainly due to a £20.7m forecast overspend on adult and health and a £7.3m overspend on children and families.
Whilst the highways and transport committee is forecast an underspend of £0.5m end of financial year, due to more money being generated from car parking than predicted.
However, members were informed the money cannot be used by highways, to repair more potholes, but will go into "the collective pot" which is standard procedure across the Council.
Cllr Craig Browne said "I just find this very frustrating. It is very very clear where the overspend in this council is coming from."
He added "It is very noticeable is is the place-based services that are once again coming in either on or slightly under budget. Then we've got this huge overspend in adults and health and children and families.
"If this was a one off I could accept the reasons .... but as we all know this is not a one off, it is something we are seeing year after year after year. So I guess my question is actually to you chair, what facility do we have as a committee through you to write to the chairs of adults and health and children and families and ask them when are they going to get their houses in order."
Cllr Mark Goldsmith, Chair of the highways and transport committee, responded "I think it's a fair comment and one that the council has recognised, We have a transformation programme underway through a company called Inner Circle. That work I think will mostly focus on those departments in terms of ensuring that they can keep within their budgets.
"That we provide a service that is needed by the adults and children but within the money that has been allocated. I think that's been the missing thing it is that they have to provide the services but the budget keeps going up and up.
"So I take on board your concerns. I think looking at that table most residents would be surprised how small amount of budget we spend as a council on highways and transport because they would see it as one of their priorities. As you can see it is a very small amount of the total we have as a council.
"The point of the transformational process is to stop spending ever more money on children and families and get more money into the areas where the public do want the money to be spent, such as transport."
He added "It is a shame we cannot spend that money elsewhere within our department but the greater needs for keeping the council afloat are needed at this point in time but we hope to get the other committees acting in the same sort of way as we have in transport as well."
Cllr Braithwaite commented "I'd just like to say that comparing committees is like comparing apples and pears. There is no direct correlation. Childrens and adults services the council is legally obliged to provide no matter how much it costs."
The 2024/25 budget for the Highways and Transport Committee is £16m whilst the Council's total net expenditure budget is £387.6m, which is forecast to actually be £414.1m.
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Totally unfit for purpose, comically wasteful and wholly unwilling to change. Meanwhile, my 87yr old dad has just had his hourly charge for his care increase by almost 70%.
The entire council needs less talking, more doing.