Will Reform reform Warwickshire?

It seems Warwickshire County Council is suffering from the same disease as Birmingham in filling its jobs with temporary staff costing a fortune.

In April, the county council spent more than £680,000 on agency staff.

If Reform are to prove their ability to tackle excessive public spending, it will be interesting to see how George Finch, Warwickshire’s 19-year-old leader, plays his part.

I thought I’d have a look at the online spending data published by the council (it says they publish this information every month but I can find nothing later than April and when I emailed, the automated answer warned there might be a delay in answering because of the ‘upcoming bank holiday of 26/5/25).

As Warwickshire is the county of Shakespeare and George Eliot, perhaps that explains why it spent £117,000 on ‘books, newspapers and periodicals’.

It spent £460,000 in April on hardware, software and other IT-related expenses as well as £194,000 on consultants and handed out £111,000 in ‘grants and donations’ though why Henley Ice Cream only got £696 when the Spaghetti Agency got £6,000 is unexplained.

The council’s motor insurance bill with Zurich Insurance was £325,849. Looks like somebody crashed the no-claims bonus.

Meanwhile, as a believer in the benefits of sport, especially after the recent cricket tests between England and India or the Women’s Euros, I shouldn’t be so cynical but I can’t help thinking Birmingham City Council is not a body I would trust to use sport – or anything else for that matter – as a means of countering extremism and terrorism.

In June, the (still bankrupt) council spent £38,000 of Counter Extremism Programme money. Of this, £11,600 went to 9Up which says it is ‘a Community Interest Company in Birmingham, focused on sports and recreation education, fitness facilities, and physical well-being activities’.

Another £8,000 went to Strike9T. They ‘believe in the power of sport to inspire, engage, and uplift young people. Our mission is simple: to provide accessible, high-quality sports programmes that empower children and young people to build confidence, develop essential life skills, and feel a true sense of belonging’.

The Counter Extremism Programme coughed up £15,000 for the Bosnia & Herzegovina UK Network which is ‘improving the quality of life for 10,000 Bosnian refugees’. Oddly, British Gas also got £4,047 under the same budget heading.

So far this year, local taxpayers have spent £154,000 fighting extremism.

Admittedly this is small beer like the £5,566 for Women and Theatre (Birmingham Ltd) compared with the £2.2 million on new Dennis Eagle bin lorries (bringing the total so far to about £7.3 million) not to mention the £1.1 million on Extra Personnel for the bin-strike department though obviously that has nothing to do with the strike itself because the council says it doesn’t.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-george-finch-asylum-seeker-contempt-of-court-risk-b2801638.html