Council juggling budget up?

A lot of people have asked us how Bristol City Council, according to their annual report, managed to spend almost £10m more on ‘CULTURAL AND RELATED SERVICES’ in 2014 -15 than in 2013 -14 while cutting vital services (Bristolian passim).

The answer is that WE HAVE NO IDEA. This is because the budget heading ‘Cultural and related services’ contained in their annual financial report is not used in the council’s management accounts that are presented to councillors and the public on a quarterly basis. Neither does the budget heading  ‘Cultural and related services’ appear in the council’s annual budget setting papers.

It’s therefore IMPOSSIBLE to work out what Bristol City Council actually spent £62,257,000 of  ‘Cultural and related services’ expenditure on. Neither can we see what caused this increase in expenditure from £52,421,000 in the previous year.

Senior bosses’ promises every year at budget meetings that their accounts will be SIMPLIFIED and CLEARLY PRESENTED to the public and councillors next time around aren’t worth a warm bucket of piss are they?

Do you ever get the feeling you’re being had?