Critical Council Tax decision which could decide fate of broke Derbyshire council to take place next week

Staveley Town Council (STC) legally needs to agree its precept, the amount it charges ratepayers, for the coming year and get it to Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) no later than one week before the collecting authority’s next full council meeting.

The precept typically accounts for more than 60 per cent of the town council’s income and without it the bankrupt authority will be unable to function, regardless of whether it gets a bail out from its Chesterfield neighbours or not.

The crucial call is due to be made at a STC meeting on Tuesday, February 14, the evening before it is required by law to be included on the agenda for the CBC meeting on February 22.

Councillor Paul Jacobs, who leads the Staveley Liberal Democrat group explained: “Unless it sets a legal balanced budget and Council Tax precept for April 2023 to March 2024 within the next few days, it will be in an even worse position and have to close down entirely.

“To set a legal budget it has to show how it will deal with the immediate huge deficit, how it will make payments on the nearly £1million loan the previous Labour-run council took out before 2019 and how it will balance the books over the next year.”

Last week, the authority closed its loss-making community cafe and made the majority of its staff redundant, but Coun Jacobs said these were unfortunate money-saving moves to prevent the authority from collapse.

“Everyone would then lose their jobs and council assets, such as Staveley Hall, would have to be sold off to try and meet the current debts and the large loan from before 2019,” he said.

“There are only a few days left in which the council can take the necessary, unpleasant, decisions or have to be completely closed down.”

STC Independent Leader Council Paul Mann said during negotiations with CBC over a potential £500k loan he was told not to set it the precept higher than the rate of inflation, currently around ten per cent.

He said there had been a lot of political finger pointing in recent weeks, but he believed his only failure as a leader had been not stopping the council’s financial crisis, which he believed was caused largely by financial mismanagement during the previous Labour administration, prior to his election in 2019.

The Labour group disagrees with this however, stating: “As the leader of the council for the last three and a half years, Coun Mann has been at the helm as previous auditor’s warnings were ignored and the town’s accounts were allowed to reach this chaotic state, he needs to spend more time focussing on increasing transparency about these accounts and the mess his administration has caused and less time attempting to find others to point the blame at.”

They have accused the Independent leadership of being wasteful with funds, distributing a leaflet stating £45k was spent on fireworks alone last Bonfire Night, however Coun Mann claims this is ‘misleading’ and only £8k was spent.

Labour responded: “The figure originally came from Staveley Town Council, which may have included additional costs associated with the running of the event and not just the fireworks themselves.

“If there is now new information on that specific event, then we would love for that to be in front of the auditors at Chesterfield Borough Council, who are currently attempting to piece together any information they can which will help them to identify what the true level of indebtedness of the council is.”

All parties all calling for an independent investigation into the council’s financial mismanagement, however there are concerns over who would pay for it.