Published: December 23, 2007
District Council leader complains to Minister as cash cuts hit Burnham

The Leader of Sedgemoor District Council has written a sternly-worded letter to Local Government Minister John Healey complaining that services such as Burnham-On-Sea Swimming Pool are being placed under threat by government funding.

Council spokeswoman Claire Faun explained to Burnham-On-Sea.com: "Sedgemoor District Council finds itself in difficult financial circumstances, like many other local authorities in the country. One of the main reasons for this is the low level of grant funding which has been awarded from Central Government."

"The Local Government Association hailed it as 'the worst settlement for 10 years' and, with this in mind, the Executive asked the Leader of Sedgemoor District Council, Cllr Duncan McGinty, to write to the Local Government Minister, John Healey MP, to point out the difficulties that this is presenting and how services that matter to tax-payers are being adversely affected."

Mr McGinty's two-page letter - which can be viewed in full here - states: "This council prides itself in passing onto the council tax payers of this district low increases and indeed its charge on a Band D property, compared to the rest of the country, places Sedgemoor's precepts within the top quartile of low cost authorities, however, we find ourselves constantly burdened by the need to find additional funding for PCSOs, increased Audit Commission charges, recycling, concessionary travel fares, to name but a few."

"This council will, as it has done in previous years, 'cut its cloth' accordingly, but the consequences are that we may be closing a swimming pool, closing a museum, reducing our level of grants, to outside organisations and making redundant up to 50 personnel in order to close a £1.8m funding gap. This equates to a reduction of 10 per cent in our workforce."

"The main purpose of this letter is to inform you, as Minister for Local Government, what the downside is if you don't get the balance right between governmental funding and government-induced expenditure and this Council is no different to many others up and down the country."

Mr McGinty concludes his letter by inviting the Minister to visit the district to see the problems himself: "In the next round of the Comprehensive Spending Review, could please ensure that the sparsity factor and rural requirements feature more highly so that we do not end up penalising rural district areas like Sedgemoor and to that end, if you wish to come down and see for yourself a rural council doing business, please feel free to contact me."

Our photos show (top) Local Government Minister John Healey, left, and Cllr Duncan McGinty, right, with Burnham swimming pool below