Sunday 11 January 2009

Mr. Micawber would be miserable...

More reluctant revelations from our increasingly secretive Town Council whose main medium of communication appears to now be the statutory notice board outside the Town Hall.

The (internally) audited accounts summary for Morley Town Council 2008 are now posted up. Under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, they are now open to public inspection by any elector for a set period.

The summary indicates whether we need to dig deeper. What can we infer from these?

Well, the income stream hasn't changed very much (up by £1k), but the expenditure has, by nearly £37k. That overspend is more than 20% of the precept, the tax that Morley Householders pay. It has been absorbed by reserves this last financial year but the Council can't do that for ever...

The interesting thing is that it isn't down to staff costs, which went down by nearly £2k. What was it spent upon, we ask ourselves?

Surely Rhubarb isn't that expensive...

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."