Wiltshire Council pressing ahead with asset-stripping despite financial crisis
December 3, 2010 9:32 AM
On Monday, December 6 the planning application for the refurbishment of County Hall will be submitted. This includes plans to move Trowbridge library into County Hall.
The plans are part of the so-called "Workplace Transformation Programme". WC Conservatives claim this will not only pay for itself but also deliver additional revenue savings of over £4 million each year. This will reduce the council's office buildings from 98 to four hubs. However the plans don't take account of the collapse in property prices associated with the recession. If the programme fails then the councils financial plans go with it, because, "the programme underpins and enables many of the savings that service directors are making to deliver a balanced budget in 2011/12 and 2012/13."
The savings from the programme are already factored into the council's business planning process and most of the service directors plans to address their budget pressure in 2011/12 have links to either the flexible working or ICT related aspects of the programme.
The council's 'catch 22' is that any delays to the programme would create additional revenue pressures on the council's budget rather than reduce them. It is only through completion of the programme that the investment made to date can be repaid and the identified savings delivered. However flogging off assets now means developers could snap them up at cheap prices.
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