Staveley Town Council in a financial mess, says leader

The leader of a town council in Derbyshire says the authority is in a "financial mess" with a deficit of up to £400,000.

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins said Staveley Town Council was "effectively bankrupt" and that staff had either not been paid or been paid late since November.

Leader Paul Mann said the pandemic and historic debts were to blame.

The government has said it "cannot provide direct financial support".

The town council's most recent financial audit saw it come under criticism from external accountants.

Published in November 2022 looking at the 2021-2022 financial year, it said there had been "systematic failure" arising from "poor management".

"The town council has been in a financial mess since about 2014," Mr Mann told the BBC.

"I came in in 2019 and we had a massive deficit and no reserves.

"I looked at it and came to the conclusion that my ideas were out of the window."

Mr Mann said the council tried to put measures in place to cut the deficit and to build reserves but then the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

He said they lost £100,000 in "uncontrollable income" such as weddings and events at Staveley Hall being cancelled.

"Being a town council, we had no help from the government in that respect," he said.

"We also found historic debts from years gone by and our backs were against the wall. It was bad management."

But the council leader added government ministers had been in touch with Chesterfield Borough Council in order to "thrash something out" in order to help the authority.

Mr Mann accepted some of the 17 members of staff had not been paid all of the wages owed to them.

He also called on central government to help town and parish councils in their situation, something Labour MP Mr Perkins has also said.

"If this was a tier 1 or tier 2 council, the government would effectively have taken over the running through civil servants," Mr Perkins said.

"These same mechanisms don't exist for town and parish councils so the government has no right to intervene, nor does Chesterfield Borough Council."

A spokesman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said it "cannot provide direct financial support" but added it been engaging with Staveley Town Council and Chesterfield Borough Council to help find a "local resolution as soon as possible".

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