The Cheltenham Post, a free newspaper published every two weeks, features columns from all political parties in Cheltenham. Your Chair, Rob Garnham, writes on behalf of the Conservative Party and below is his latest column, published on the 26th February.
Time for some blunt speaking. I was a Councillor on Cheltenham Borough Council for 18 years and in all that time, and especially when the Conservatives ran the Council, we never reached a state of budget crisis that we now have.
The Lib Dems run the Council. They are responsible for the budget, for spending, for saving, and for the accounts. Last week the Audit Committee met to discuss the Council’s Audit 2024/25. That report is available on the Council website for all to read and highlights significant longstanding issues. As a former Mayor of Cheltenham points out in her recent open letter to the council “The external auditors could not sign off the accounts for 2022/23, 2023/24, or 2024/25 because too much information was missing, incomplete, or unreliable. Large parts of the Housing Revenue Account, property valuations, and capital assets could not be audited at all.”
Let’s be clear. Officers at the Council do a marvellous job, I know that from my own experience. However, the leadership, policy setting and how the council is run lies solely and squarely with the Lib Dem politicians who dominate the council. So, what is going on at the Muni? Despite numerous deadlines the Airport remains unsold, overspends are everywhere, the council are wrestling with a possible budget shortfall of over £1million and costs are being deferred into the future. With a neighbouring Gloucester City Lib Dem Council effectively declaring bankruptcy, I fear for the Borough and wonder what extra costs the Lib Dems will heap upon the Cheltenham taxpayers in the future.
Is this why they wrote to the government begging for May’s elections to be cancelled? Is this why a former Lib Dem MP for the town says the best outcome for local government reorganisation is to split the county into two. You should know that it is only the Lib Dems in Cheltenham who wanted to cancel the elections, and it is they alone who want to split our county into East and West rather than keeping "One Gloucestershire", a Conservative pledge that strangely enough, is shared by many other Lib Dems in the county!
I said I would speak as I find. In my last column I said that potholes were the talk of the town. Now I find the real talk is about lack of Lib Dem leadership and financial incompetency. Bring on those May elections I say!
