Don't believe what you read in the press

As a Leader of Christchurch Borough Council I am constantly bombarded with information and statistics which even at the best of times is contradictory and difficult to follow. I make no apology for saying there are times when you have to go with your gut instincts and decide in your own mind whether or not something feels right. I was handed a newspaper article today which tells the story of how Councils in this part of the world are getting off lightly when it comes to funding cuts and the Government’s austerity programme. That didn’t seem right to me when I know that huge reductions in the money paid to Christchurch Borough Council are taking place and we have informed our local residents of the changes in meetings we have held around the Borough. The newspaper stated that following the latest round of cuts, the grant funding received by Christchurch Borough Council is around £25 per head whilst the equivalent amount in Hackney is £958 per head. Smelling a rat I realised that as a Unitary Council Hackney provide the same range of services which both Christchurch Borough Council and Dorset County Council. So I managed to get hold of the grant per head figure for Dorset County Council which is £146 per head. So add the grant for the Borough Council and the County Council together you come to a figure which is £171. Let me repeat that in Hackney every person is granted £958 against £171 in Christchurch! The newspaper articles intimate that we are better off in Christchurch when the facts are that we are over 5 times worse off than someone who lives in Hackney. If we received the same amount of funding as Hackney per head it would amount to an extra £35 million per year , that’s nearly enough to provide all of the Borough and County Council services in Christchurch virtually free of charge and shows that we make a very little go a long way. In Christchurch we have already experienced cuts in central government funding of 28%, now we are told that next year a further 19% reduction is possible, it is in this economic scenario that we have to work out how we are going to maintain services. We haven’t complained in a newspaper, we recognise our responsibility in this fiscal climate and are responding in my opinion, as our responsible residents would wish but I just get very annoyed when journalists are given free rein to distort the real facts. Never has the term “lies, damn lies and statistics” been more relevant.