Darlington Borough Council's Cabinet meeting next week will be asked to approve the "deferment" of £1.723million of capital expenditure in the current financial year. You will recall that the Council recently went £1.9million overbudget in building the little-used Eastern Transport Corridor.
Schemes which will go include £400,000 of unspecified environmental improvements, £700,000 on a new Skerne Park Community Centre, £159,000 on various town centre improvements and several other smaller projects.
The effects of this will vary and in some cases will mean on-going repair bills will increase, which will put further pressure on the Council's Revenue Budget.
This Council has not covered itself in glory over the past few years when it comes to controlling its capital budget, with several examples of over-spends and wastefulness. Some chickens coming home to roost here, methinks.
However, it behoves all individuals, businesses and government organisations to carefully review their expenditure in the current economic climate. I do not envisage any improvement for some time, unless, of course, Gordon Brown decides to pump money into public projects in order to re-stimulate the economy in a desperate bid for votes in 2010.
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