Your Shepway: Council Cash freeze 'absolutely dreadful for staff' (Shepway Liberal Democrats)

Your Shepway: Council Cash freeze 'absolutely dreadful for staff'

January 30, 2008 2:30 PM

The "Your Shepway" newspaper this week leads on a block on spending at Shepway District Council which has has left workers stressed and understaffed.

Cllr Lynne Beaumont, leader of the Shepway Liberal Democrat group, has accused the Tory leaders of SDC of cutting every budget and not advertising for new staff in a bid to plug a gap in the authority's finances.

She also said the council's financial reserves had been drained.

"If you talk to officers they are saying 'We can't spend anything unless it is an emergency or it is for health and safety'," said Cllr Beaumont.

"This is dreadful. The knock-on to the staff is absolutely appalling - they have about 30 vacancies at this point in time, with only three being advertised.

"We are holding vacant posts, which means that the people who work here are going to have an awful lot more work to do with very little money to do it."

Cllr Beaumont paid tribute to council employees, whom she said were working hard to maintain services in the face of the spending freeze.

Shepway Liberal Democrats