In response to Kent Online,
“Prior to the General Election in 2024, the Leader of the Council was vociferous in his calls for more funding for local government and blaming his administration's inability to set a balanced budget on a lack of funding from central government.
Now the Leader blames "other challenges", whilst still refusing to take difficult but necessary decisions to get Medway Council's finances back on track. Some of these challenges self-inflicted, given above inflation pay rises last year, higher debt repayments due to huge capital borrowing, and wasted money on an LGR business case in relation to the Medway option.
The current medium term financial statements show an ever growing gap all the way through until the end of the decade. But of course, Medway Council will cease to exist by this point, so the administration has now effectively given up getting the Budget back into a surplus in order to protect its political position from difficult decisions.
This isn't just economically illiterate in leaving the new authority with even greater debt but is morally the wrong thing to do".
