Find Out Why Sefton's Road Repair Budget Has Sparked a Heated Debate!

How many men does it take to fill a pothole ?  That’s the question that Sefton councillors will have to resolve at the Thursday’ s Council Meeting when Sefton’s budget for the year is set. 

It's a a budget that relies on Sefton Council being able to sell off £12M of assets to balance the books, but it is also a budget that contains significant staffing increases. 

There is proposed a £200,000 increases in the Highways budget but it’s accompanied by an even bigger increase in Sefton Highway’s Department staffing (£275,000) and an additional £512,000 in staff to manage contracts. Sefton does not fix the roads itself but inspects and hands out the work to external contractors.

"This is woefully unbalanced”, says the opposition leader on Sefton , Liberal Democrat , John Pugh. 

“Sefton is depending next year on one off temporary sales of assets  - a fire sale- to balance the books while planning to add considerably to its long term, permanent wage bill. 

Whereas one accepts that increased management time may be needed to deal with increased pressures and workflow, no paper has been presented to councillors explaining these staffing increases. Sefton is expecting Labour councillors to just wave it through. 

Adding nearly £800,000 to your payroll when you finished the year with no balances and are reduced to selling off your assets is reckless, doing it without asking for a detailed explanation is plain stupid.  

There are already even more substantial staffing increases hidden in the social services budget which has doubled in the last five years, increasing by over £60M."

Cllr. Pugh added, “There has been a sharp and dramatic deterioration on many key roads. These roads and the public patience are wearing thin, but the answer to every council stress cannot be an automatic-“ we need more staff”  and even if at times that is the right answer there ought to be a closely scrutinised case presented to councillors in advance