A feeling of uncertainty has been cast over the future of Nottingham City Council, after they were planned to receive further government intervention.
With resignations coming across the board, ending with that of the Prime Minister, the department that oversee the authority were stuck without the proper representation. This led to the city council having to submit its own letter of representation yesterday, with the government looking into taking further action on the council after discovery of further financial failings.
The letter of representation, written by Dales ward councillor David Mellen, said:
"We have understood that the seriousness of the issues and the need for improvement was not centred on a narrow technical issue of an individual company, but on the underlying way that we do things and we have sought to do this in an open and transparent way.
Together for Nottingham is our overarching improvement programme, which has benefitted from the input, support and challenge from our Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB), chaired by Sir Tony Redmond. Solid progress has been made including the development and adoption of a four-year Medium Term Financial Plan, improved governance and decision making supported by greater clarity around member officer relationships, together with positive progress being made on our large-scale transformation and improvement programmes.
Whilst acknowledging there is more to do these significant achievements have been acknowledged by the IAB. We believe that the current support arrangements in place through the IAB are working well and it would be the council’s preference that these arrangements remain in place."
With the government in a state of disarray and in need of rebuilding, the council’s situation is very much up in the air, and it could result in no further intervention from the government.
