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Leigh On Sea News: Town Council Debt Scandal UPDATE – AS the Leigh On Sea News went to print (Sunday February 18) the following update was published by Leigh Town Council:
Town Council Debt Scandal UPDATE - AS the Leigh On Sea News went to print (Sunday February 18) the following update was published by Leigh Town Council:
AS the Leigh On Sea News went to print (Sunday February 18) the following Statement was published by Leigh Town Council: “Over the past week or so there have been several unofficial statements made concerning the costs of operating the Leigh-on-Sea Community Centre.
“While conventional wisdom, based on statements made from time to time by the then Town Clerk, has been that the Centre “paid for itself”, protracted research and investigation of historical revenues and expenses reveals that this is far from the truth.
“This research has been conducted as part of the 2024-25 Budget submission, a process which has itself been hindered considerably by the reluctance of administrative staff to cooperate with Councillors in producing correct and verified income and expenditure statements for past periods.
“Elementary accounting errors, which led to significant overstatement of Community Centre “profits” were found in monthly statements for the current 2023-24 financial year. These statements had not been provided to the Council’s Finance & Governance Committee on a regular basis and were obtained (for only two of the ten months of 2023-24 to date) only after repeated requests to administrative staff.
“After much examination of internal Council documents dating back to 2019, it has become clear that the operation of the Community Centre over the past five years has resulted in an accumulated deficit of the order of £1 million. This surprising and unwelcome discovery reflects very poorly on previous Town Councils, and has prompted the present Council to make a thorough review of all existing revenues and expenses.
“However, it is unequivocally the present Council’s intention to continue operating the Community Centre, so that its facilities, as well as the many third-party regular activities and events held there, can continue, to the benefit of Leigh’s citizens and their friends.
“How this will be accomplished will become clear following the forthcoming review that was proposed at the recent Community and Culture Committee meeting.”
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