Herefordshire Council has borrowed nearly £23 million in past four months (From Hereford Times)
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Herefordshire Council has borrowed nearly £23 million in past four months
8:40am Monday 29th October 2012 in News By Bill Tanner
CASH-strapped Herefordshire Council has borrowed nearly £23 million from other councils since May this year with much of the money going towards making ends meet.
But £6m borrowed over August-September alone was to fund capital spending, including the Rockfield purchase for Hereford’s proposed link road project.
A new treasury management report prepared for the council shows the total interest paid on all these loans to the end of September as topping £4m.
The council borrowed between £2m and £3.97m each time, from councils including Worcestershire, Rhondda, Coventry, Leicester and East Renfrewshire.
Repayments were due between seven and 52 days after borrowing at interest rates ranging from 0.26 per cent to 0.29 per cent.
In addition to the interest the council also pays broker commission at 0.1 per cent per annum.
The report says the short-term loans taken out in May were to “provide additional liquidity at a time when balances were relatively low”.
Borrowing over August to September was, the report says, to fund capital expenditure including the Rockfield purchase completed in August.
The council refers only to an “undisclosed sum” paid out over Rockfield and reached after several years of negotiation.
In July this year the Hereford Times revealed that the council’s overall borrowing debt was £173m and would have been much higher had the council not used reserve funds to meet its needs.
Figures for the end of the last financial year show that to keep up with its ongoing capital scheme the council needed to borrow as much as £208m and it was only by using reserves that the council could borrow around £34m less.
Comments(25)
billyb83
says...
10:29am Mon 29 Oct 12
Roger J
says...
12:58pm Mon 29 Oct 12
Clarkester
says...
1:21pm Mon 29 Oct 12
I've got a great idea. We should replace all the traffic lights with flowers! And all the road signs with an empty cardboard box!
I know what you're thinking... It'll never work. But give it a try, for a year maybe.
I'm not charging much for my countywide rebranding, just a couple of million... Because, Here, you can!
KNIGHTROOK
says...
1:30pm Mon 29 Oct 12
The store has always had a familial atmosphere that will be sorely missed.
But progress is progress for progresses sake.
The land locked location which was cheaply negotiated by the directors of Rockfield has proved to be a viable investment.
Compulsory purchase would have netted the owners of Rockfield Diy Ltd with a lot less than they received through negotiations no doubt.
I was under the impression that the land the building sat on belonged to the council anyway and the building was all that was for negotiation.
Relocation would have been very simple to negotiate...there are many units in Hereford that are empty an in need of long term tenants. Holmer road could have done with the competition.
Sadly like many other Large Long established family businesses in Hereford such as Chadd's, Praills, Greenland's, Townsends, Bristow Bros the forces of demand and modernization are in social economics unlikely partners but necessary evils that stamp on values and tradition in favor of progress...?
Hereford is changing but will it become a place we will embrace or shun we have yet to wait and see.
Patley
says...
3:23pm Mon 29 Oct 12
littlewhitebull
says...
3:45pm Mon 29 Oct 12
Clarkester wrote:You might be on to a winner with your idea, Clarkester.
Because, Roger J... Here You Can...
I've got a great idea. We should replace all the traffic lights with flowers! And all the road signs with an empty cardboard box!
I know what you're thinking... It'll never work. But give it a try, for a year maybe.
I'm not charging much for my countywide rebranding, just a couple of million... Because, Here, you can!
A few weeks ago I had to deliver to Ross, Abergavenny and Garway when the traffic lights by Asda were not functioning. Perhaps I was lucky, but there were no traffic hold-ups - almost everybody behaved well. Send your bill to Plough Lane!
M M
says...
6:49pm Mon 29 Oct 12
When are the fools going to learn that you have to cut your coat according to the material available? Now the Government has capped the Council Tax again next year with interest on the borrowed money how will they repay this loan? I am willing to bet they won't cut their salaries, in fact they will probably give themselves a pay rise!
bobby47
says...
7:34pm Mon 29 Oct 12
They've got to grasp the stinging nettle and deal with these problems. No more job creation excercises, trim the bloated salary tree, start getting rid of the jobs within the Council that we don't need. Get rid of this culture of sending things out to Consultant firms and stop travelling, eating and drinking at our expense.
Lukio
says...
8:32pm Mon 29 Oct 12
A new chief exec costing hundreds of thousands of pounds;
Increased parking charges;
No public toilets;
Failed children's protection services;
No more black bin bags;
Secret meetings;
Questionable relationships with u elected Hereford Futures;
Electric car charging at bequest of a local business despite no identifiable need;
Cuts to local NHS services e.g. Ross hospital;
'Here you can' road signs fiasco;
Information blackouts on reports;
£12000 on bottled water;
Parks and open spaces neglect;
Expense claims increase;
Register Office closures in the market towns;
Rockfield;
Constant traffic gridlock and the bypass debacle;
Pot holes;
Widemarsh Street's 'invisible' curbs.
I've only gone back seven months as I was getting to the point where I was losing the will to live.
Anyway, I'm sure some of the regular posters on here will think of more wonderful things HC have done in recent months, how wisely they have spent public money and what an amazing job they are doing to take the county into the future.
bobby47
says...
10:22pm Mon 29 Oct 12
Vegetation that blocked our flood defences.
The Lift to Garrick House Car Park fiasco.
The On Off fiasco concerning the proposed build of the new footbridge that would cross the Wye at the Outfall Road and continue to Rotherwas.
probono
says...
9:25am Tue 30 Oct 12
Too many chiefs etc...
TwoWheelsGood
says...
10:46am Tue 30 Oct 12
Reading this report again, I note these are very short term loans - 7 to 52 days long - it increasingly looks like the Council appear to be living from hand to mouth - borrowing from Peter to pay Paul ... and a nice commission each time to the 'broker'.
TwoWheelsGood
says...
2:18pm Tue 30 Oct 12
bobby47
says...
3:08pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Lukio
says...
3:08pm Tue 30 Oct 12
GDJ
says...
5:05pm Tue 30 Oct 12
You are probably not managerial enough to understand what one of these is so I will condescendingly explain.
They are offices.... in places. Only with more managerial furniture.
They are part of the centralise/decentral
ise/centralise cycle that managers so enjoy. There are several locality hubs as part of a decentralisation. Wait till there is new management and they will disappear again in the pursuit of efficiency and centralisation.
TwoWheelsGood
says...
5:06pm Tue 30 Oct 12
TwoWheelsGood
says...
5:12pm Tue 30 Oct 12
bobby47
says...
5:32pm Tue 30 Oct 12
We will all remember you as a man of principle and when you do go down there with your clipper lighter and accelerant to do this demented act me and the lads will be there in the pub waving you off.
It'll obviously be on YouTube so put on a good show and don't let us down.
probono
says...
7:43pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Lukio
says...
8:36pm Tue 30 Oct 12
A Council favouring an extreme religious organisation (let's face it - they are) is extremely questionable and should be looked at in more detail. But as I say, what FC are doing means HC don't have to so they're quids in. Another service they don't have to do.
I have a friend who lives near FC. They are very bad neighbours playing loud music late into the night which is intrusive into people's daily lives. The local Environmental Health authority are not interested and although they've monitored the sound levels they won't do anything about it to quieten them. If the local residents want to do anything about it, their only option is a private prosecution which is very costly.
TwoWheelsGood
says...
9:25pm Tue 30 Oct 12
I'm aware of the noise issue - its quite deplorable that Council funded anti-social behaviour is driving people from their homes.
Lukio
says...
9:47pm Tue 30 Oct 12
fordshire77
says...
12:20pm Wed 31 Oct 12
bobby47 says...
9:22am Mon 29 Oct 12
I can't take anymore of this news about our bloody Council and their crazy form of democracy and good house keeping.
Im for gathering up a bunch of Posters, tippy toe into the Hereford Times Office, and with the aid of a small nail hammer flatten all the digits on Bills hands so that he can't type anymore and tell us what this bloody Council are doing to us.
We've gotta get rid of this Council. Not only are they cocking everything up, they are borrowing money to do it. Im serious, this Council mean to bring us down and we've gotta do something.