'˜We still don't know what we can spend next year' '“ Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones hits out at Government for funding figures delay

Elected mayor Ros Jones has bemoaned Government in their delay in telling councils like Doncaster how much money they'll be able to spend next year.Â
Mayor of Doncaster Ros JonesMayor of Doncaster Ros Jones
Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones

According to the mayor, the borough has an estimated budget deficit of around £24 million and further reductions for local government across the country is expected. 

Local authority bosses in Doncaster were expected to be handed a set of figures to work with during the 2019/2020 budget on Friday, December 6. This would outline potential cuts, job losses and any rise in council tax. 

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Government then told council leaders no decision on local authority funding would take place until after the planned vote on Brexit. 

But Prime Minister Theresa May postponed the vote delaying the process even further. 

It's understood Doncaster will be able to publish these figures next week. 

Senior councillors in Doncaster have previously scoffed at comments Prime Minister Theresa May made back in October when she said '˜austerity is over'. 

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Council bosses had to recently step in to cover a £6 million black hole in Doncaster Children's Services Trust budgets. 

Mayor Jones has also previously said that children and adult social services is the far biggest chunk of the overall budget due to rising demand. 

The mayor said: 'Government should've announced it on the day it was given '“ I understand that Brexit is extremely important for the whole of the country however, running our authority is important to the people of Doncaster.

'They expect the people in Parliament to get on and deliver what was voted through and I need to know what we've got to run the borough of Doncaster.

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'We will be presenting a balanced budget but it is no way to run a country never mind a borough when you're having to budget year on year '“ you need a three to five year budget.'

'There's a 10 year plan for the NHS but there is nothing like that for councils.'

'What we want is Government to accept that local authorities has taken too larger hit and it's time ministers realised that.

'They need to stop making differences between north and south and we want to see the things that should be paid for nationally actually picked up and that's both for adults and children's services.'

'We've had to take massive reductions a in our workforce like every other authority over the years and lack of certainty is not the right way to run a council '“ staff are our biggest asset.'