Proper Explanation Needed

8.47.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 6th Aug 2008

In a letter to local newspapers, Saffron Walden Town Councillor Richard Freeman (Liberal Democrat) has called for a genuinely impartial forensic review, carried out by acknowledged professionals without a political axe to grind, into the sudden and miraculous upturn in the District Council's finances.

Richard writes "The whole matter of the apparent 'hole' in the finances is itself intriguing. In the run-up to the last election, it was the mantra of the Tories that the Lib Dems were financially incompetent. How they worked this out no-one could understand, because the evidence certainly did not support such a claim.

"Then when they were swept into power in May 2007, they claimed that they'd found things to be even worse than expected; swingeing cuts in staff and council services would have to follow. As a result, we lost an excellent chief executive, and numerous other loyal staff.

"Now it seems that the finances have been magically repaired; £1.4m has appeared out of the blue, and the real size of the deficit is around £90k. No amount of Tory 'good management' or cost-cutting could have achieved this; the Budget problem must have been exaggerated in the first place.

"The Tories have always maintained that the District Council was overstaffed; was this transient - or even imaginary - hole in the Budget a device to get rid of the chief executive and thin down the rest of the staff?

Council finances are intricate. Even so, the public still needs an explanation, as do the hard working officers at Uttlesford. This can only come from an audit made by independent (and respected) professionals. It is never going to come from someone with a political agenda."