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Torbay Council Halts 'Non-urgent' Spending

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(Last Updated On: August 18, 2018)

Torbay Council halts non-urgent spending to tackle ‘significant financial challenges’

Torbay Council has announced an immediate moratorium on spending as it tries to deal with financial trouble and a predicted £2.8m overspend at the end of March next year, saying that the main reason behind the spending cuts is a 20% increase in the number of children in its care since November last year.

All non-urgent spending will be blocked, meaning some public services will be stripped back or axed completely and the council will not be able to buy new vehicles, machinery or equipment. The Torbay Airshow may also fall victim to the cuts.

Chief executive Steve Parrock claimed that the council has not “run out of money” or used its cash reserves, and that the moratorium has in fact been put in place to protect these reserves, adding: “This means that even if an activity or contract is budgeted for, it may be postponed or cancelled if it isn’t urgent or required to meet our statutory duties. Every effort continues to be made to bring forward further efficiency savings and deliver our current transformation projects at pace.”

Parrock noted that Torbay Council, like other local authorities, continues to face “significant challenges” due to government funding cuts and increasing demands.

Bob Jope

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(Author)

Apart from five years studying in Oxford I’ve lived most of my life in London where for many years I was Head of English in a prestigious girls’ school, but since taking early retirement and heading West to be nearer to my two daughters - settling in Torbay with my wife, Anna, in 2011 - I’ve worked in the voluntary sector. I took on the role of Service Provider, for example, promoting the Red Cross Torbay Navigators Project, while now I’m a Trustee and part of the Media Team for our local Healthwatch. I’m a governor at Torquay Academy, too, giving me the chance to stay up to date with what’s happening in the world of education. Other interests, aside from friends and family, include art and art history, reading - from contemporary fiction and poetry to Elizabethan/Jacobean literature - history, politics, cooking, walking, and music, in particular Bob Dylan, the blues, and early Elvis. I love writing, too, with one novel published so far – Elvis in Wonderland – and another, Who’s There?, that still needs plenty of work!