£15m budget black hole remains as council ceases overtime and cuts stationery costs

Wrexham Council has a £15 million ‘budget gap remaining’ after almost £9m in “efficiencies” were made.

The figure is down on the £23.8m sum that we first reported on 33 days ago – indicating that where there is a desire to run a more efficient local authority, it can be found pretty quick.

The council remain tight lipped as no details nor confirmation of the sums have been made public, but it is understood £7.7m of efficiencies plus a reworked financial forecast have resulted in the new figure.

Internal documents seen by Wrexham.com detail how some departments are now only recruiting to essential posts, and cancelling all overtime ‘with immediate effect’.

Details of the depth of ‘efficiencies’ includes notice that staff are being told to ‘reduce stationery costs unless essential’ and training and other courses will be ‘essential only’.

New supplies and services will also be ‘essential only’, and tighter controls appear in place on staff travel.

The preliminary lists are part of per-department savings and income generation plans with all areas of the council taking “immediate actions” to mitigate the budget forecast, including all departments looking to identify in-year savings of around 15% with ‘all areas of expenditure and income’ to be examined to ‘bring the budget back in line’

11 days ago we asked Wrexham Council about the range of changes being brought in, and asked if any Lead Councillors would be sharing details publicly, and how the plans would equate to savings in their departments against previously public budget projections.

As there is no Executive Board this month, nor any public update, we also asked if there was a timeline to when the public would be told what is going on.

Wrexham Council did not reply.

One leaked ‘confidential’ document to staff from two weeks ago did contain a comment from Cllr David A Bithell that stated: “I am sure you are more than aware that this position could change should interest and inflation rates continue to rise

“We wish to reassure staff that we will continue to protect services and jobs to the best of our abilities.”