OnTheWight has discovered that the Isle of Wight council has issued budget papers which, as well as renaming one item something it isn’t, has alluded to ‘savings’ for something that hasn’t even been paid for the last two years.
Solent LEP ‘Membership Fee’
During OnTheWight’s delve into the Isle of Wight council’s proposed budget, among many others (more on those later) one particular item jumped out at us.
Item 42 refers to a saving of £29,000 pa for the next three years due to the “Removal of Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (SLEP) annual membership fee”. The papers go on to explain, “There is no longer any subscription fee for the membership of the SLEP”.
Our first thought was what implications that would have have, ie., removing the IWC from the SLEP, so we got in touch with both the IWC and SLEP to find out more.
SLEP: “Never been a ‘membership fee'”
Richard Jones, the Head of Policy, Communications and Partner Engagement at the SLEP came back to us almost immediately, very confused as to why the IWC would be referring to a ‘membership fee’, because, he stated, “there has never been a membership fee”.
He went on to say that when the SLEP was first set up most Local Authorities made a contribution to the running costs, but his impression was that hadn’t been the case for some time.
IWC: Language changed “to aid the understanding”
Following our query to council on this – letting them know what the SLEP had told OnTheWight about there never having been a membership fee, the response from the council was a little surprising, to say the least.
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight council told OnTheWight,
“When the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership was set up, partner authorities contributed to the running costs of the SLEP.
“The funding for this is now provided for centrally, hence the option proposed in the budget report of saving the ‘membership’ fee.
“Membership fee has been used in this context to aid the understanding of the figure in question.”
Hasn’t been paid since 2014/15 budget
OnTheWight asked the IWC what had been their level of contribution to the running costs – afterall, as their budget alludes to ‘savings’ you’d be forgiven for thinking it was an ongoing cost.
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight council told OnTheWight,
“The Isle of Wight Council paid two fees to the SLEP in 2013/14 and 2014/15 of £25,000. The budget to continue this payment has been included in subsequent years but has not been spent.
“It has, therefore, been proposed that for the 2017/18 budget, that the allocated budget for this payment is deleted, as it is an historic payment, and not one expected to be paid in future years due to funding arrangements now being provided for centrally.”
How many other items ‘changed’?
So in fact, as well as the item not being for ‘membership fees’, it also hasn’t been paid for two years. The person in the street would find that hard to see that as a ‘saving’ – something you don’t already pay for.
Some might wonder how many other items on the budget papers have had their language changed “to aid the understanding”.
Image: David Mulder under CC BY 2.0
