Harrogate Borough Council 'successful' in managing debts from pandemic
Councillor Richard Cooper has been speaking to us in our exclusive #LeadersinLockdown special
Last updated 18th Mar 2021
Our #LeadersinLockdown special premieres on our YouTube channel at 7pm today (18 March)
The leader of Harrogate Borough Council has exclusively told Greatest Hits Radio that they've been successful in managing the debts accrued throughout the pandemic.
Councillor Richard Cooper spoke with us for our Leaders in Lockdown news special, where we put questions to him from ourselves and members of the public.
Cllr Cooper was asked about hole left in Harrogate Borough Council's finances as a result of the pandemic, which he confirmed was over £9million.
But he added that the council had a "robust finances in place" pre-covid which has helped them deal with the deficit.
He said: "I think that shows the council has robust finances in place because we'd been left with a £9 million shortfall as a result of covid and we managed to cover that with our own resources and not have to increase the council tax unduly to cover any black holes."
Councillors voted earlier this year to increase the average council tax by 9 pence a week, similar to its increase on the previous financial year.
Cllr Cooper, added: "If you suddenly find yourself losing two thirds of your annual income without any notice it's going to be scary, but we'd done things in the past to make us resilient. So, building the new civic centre saved us £1 million a year in costs to the council by making it more energy efficient.
"We were well prepared to be able to adjust what we do, to be able to change and reschedule our finances, make savings like we had done with the civic centre and therefore we didn't need to do any emergency budgets which I think is a testament to the way the staff have worked to mend the roof while the sun was shining."
The authority has also frozen almost all recruitment during the pandemic which has prompted some concerns that the strain of balancing the books is being placed on staff.
Cllr Cooper, said: "We keep it under review all the time but I have concerns of the amount of stress and pressure this will be putting on staff as a result of picking up other jobs. We have also had to redeploy staff to other services, so it wouldn't be unusual for you to see your usual lifeguard going out and emptying your bins.
"We've had staff who are shielding, isolating or who have had covid and aren't fit to come back to work yet. So staff from across the entire council have been making sure the services have kept running by being very flexible."