Monday, 28 February 2011

Finally council opens its books to the public

Finally, with great reticence and after a great deal of pressure, the Residents' Associations have published all council expenditure over £500.

The RAs have been forced to release this data by the government. They were among the last few councils in the country to publish it and despite promising to put it out in October made sure they held it back until after the February budget meeting. They clearly don't want people looking at this, therefore I hope as many residents as possible do.

I will be examining the data carefully, but already it is of note how much the RAs spend on consultants' fees across a number of budget headings. Shame on them for hiding this information for so long. No wonder they haven't even bothered to press release the availability of this material. A perfect indication of the RAs lack of commitment to transparency in local government.

The new information can be found here.

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