2008-10-29 :: ripleyandheanornews.co.uk :: Council's cash crisis update: Funds are in Iceland

http://www.ripleyandheanornews.co.uk/news/Council39s-cash-crisis-update-Funds.4642050.jp

Council's cash crisis update: Funds are in Iceland
Published Date: 29 October 2008
Amber Valley Borough Council has revealed it is trying to reclaim about £1 million it has invested in a troubled Icelandic bank.
The council said two weeks ago that it had no money invested in Lands Banki one of the country's failed banks but it now emerges that taxpayers money had been deposited with Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander Ltd, one of its subsidiaries.

A spokesperson for the council said: "The decision to invest rests with the council, not our advisers.

"At the time the investment was made with KSF the credit ratings for the bank were within our approved criteria.

"We are not expecting any short-term impact on our financial position as a result of KSF being put into administration.

"We have lodged an appeal to recover the deposit and interest due."

The council also said that the situation was nothing to do with the cash crisis at the authority which could soon result in redundancies.
Eighty jobs have been earmarked to go in a desperate bid to beat a projected £2.5 million budget deficit.

Posts could be cut across all areas of the authority and union leaders have voiced their fury at the move.

Ripley's Tourist Information office in the Market Place may also shut, in a cost- cutting move set to be adopted at a meeting next week.
The borough council is trying to introduce a new so-called 'fit-for-purpose' structure that is intended to address the projected deficit in the budget.

In a report to be discussed at a meeting of the full council on Wednesday the authority has drawn up a list of its priorities. It is maintaining waste services and recycling, improving open spaces in the borough, and continuing local issues such as housing and leisure facilities.

Cllr Stuart Bradford, council leader, said: "We want to focus our resources on maintaining the services that the public expect us to deliver while at the same time keeping council tax low.

"We are committed to making further savings in order to continue delivering excellent value for money whilst reducing the projected budget deficit."

Charlie Carruth, a spokesman for Unison, said: "Angry is not the word for how we feel about this.

"I can't understand how the council has managed to get itself into this position. They had known about the projected deficit since September 2007, they could have come to us then and it could have been managed instead of looking at compulsory redundancies and cutting services.

"We are going to keep having a go at them because it is the right thing to do."