Coun Alan Seldon, chairman, overview and scrutiny committee, says funding is below national average (From Hereford Times)

Coun Alan Seldon, chairman, overview and scrutiny committee, says funding is below national average

7:00am Friday 3rd February 2012 in Letters

AS you have published recently, Herefordshire Council is in the process of setting a budget for 2012-13. Deliberations have been long and tortuous with a number of very difficult decisions to be made.

One thing is clear however: if Herefordshire was funded from central Government at the national average, it would be much easier.

Funding per head of population in Herefordshire will be £332.25 against a national average of £382.23, an 18 per cent difference.

Even worse, our children’s education is funded at £4723.65 against a national average of £5082.54, a seven per cent difference. Herefordshire ranks at 37th out of 55 unitary authorities.

I asked the director of finance for an explanation and answer there came none. There is no transparency with the calculations and it appears that the Government has taken no account of the rural nature of our county.

I think it is time to change this and lobby even harder for a fair deal.

No special treatment, just the average will make a huge difference to our children and the rest of the county we love.

We can argue about where the money should be spent, but at least it could be at the national average.

COUN ALAN SELDON, Chairman, overview and scrutiny committee.