THANK you to the Advertiser for their reporting of the challenge the government is placing on the council, and for the support in the editorial, too.

Some residents have asked me on reading the headline if this means the council cannot meet its responsibilities or will have to make cuts. The answer is that the council has already budgeted to pay the £2.5 million bill for concessionary fares this year. It is also budgeting to pay £3 million on them next year, despite the grant only going up by £30,000.

The concessionary fares scheme is popular and it is great to see local buses full of people out to enjoy our area. Our argument is with the government, who announced that they would pay the bill for councils’ implementing the scheme, but have constructed a bureaucratic funding scheme that delivers an increase in direct grant of £560,000 and leaves the council to pick up the balance.

Councils like Harrogate are penalised because we have a very high number of visitors, and the funding formula does not allow adequately for this, so councils like York and Scarborough with lots of visitors suffer, too. We have lobbied the government for a change of policy, as have many other councils, and we have taken this up with shadow ministers, too. This lobbying did result in the level of direct grant being set higher.

The council’s finances are in good shape; the recent assessment by the Audit Commission has given it its best marks ever. That is why we are in a position to meet these burdens from the government.

Ministers seem to be in denial about this error the government has made. Until they put in place the means to redress it, however, the council will keep a very tight grip on the purse strings so it can continue to do the priorities we have set for it locally – the repair of Starbeck Baths and extending the doorstep recycling service.