Which one is lying? Cllr Ablewhite or The Hunts Post?

Further to a recent blog about Cllr Ablewhite and his 24% claim about the pension contributions to the local government pension scheme, I have received further information from the CAB which casts more doubt on the 24% claim reported in the Hunts Post as Cllr Ablewhite as saying the following:

"For example, 24 per cent of the money we give to the Citizens Advice Bureau goes into the local government pension scheme."

Hunts CAB says:

‘We have an employer’s contribution rate of 20.1% this financial year, and 22.1% for the financial year 2012-13 which will be the final year of the current SLA. The employer’s contribution rate only applies to the salaries of the three remaining active members of the scheme and we stopped admitting new members some years ago. This current year, the pension contributions represent 4.4 % of the budget allocated to us by HDC.’

Either the Hunts Post is correct about what Cllr Ablewhite said or Cllr Ablewhite didn't say anything about the 24% and the Hunts Post is wrong. Either way when people look up why the CAB has had its grant cut then the reason will be 24% of the grant goes on pensions. This is rubbish. 

Should we take what Cllr Ablewhite says on face value?

In a recent article in the Hunts Post, Cllr Ablewhite, Council Leader, informs readers how in his reign HDC is saving money.

This is one of his musings:

“More and more over the years we have seen the council funding employment rather than volunteers. For example, 24 per cent of the money we give to the Citizens Advice Bureau goes into the local government pension scheme. So we need the voluntary organisations to make the efficiency savings that they can to save us money over the longer term.”

Hmm... Yes HDC is funding employees rather than volunteers. Yes they have a pension pot. But does his figures add up? Well no they don't. The accounts for Huntingdonshire Citizens Advice Bureau are here. They show that HDC granted HCAB £183,500. 24% of £183,250 = £43,980.

The total pension costs shown is £11,237 or 6% of the £183,250 granted by HDC. That is £32,743 short of the total. HDC;s current rate of pension contributions is at 20.4% for employees in the pension scheme. Even at that high rate £11,237 represents £55,083 pensionable earnings of £119,537 in HCAB wages. So not all employees are members of the pensions scheme.

If all wages and salaries are in the local government pension scheme (and they aren't) then the employees contribution would have to be 17.9%. Now these employees aren't getting large salaries so they can't pay this much in pension contributions. On the LGPS website the contributions are given and they average out at 6%.

So the employee contributions at 6% would be roughly £11,237.

So adding together what the employees pay and HCAB pays this adds up to £22,474. This is still £21,416 short of the £43,980 that Cllr Ablewhite says is the 24%.

The 24% figure is wrong. 24% doesn't go to the LGPS from HCAB even if employee contributions added in.

And another:
“As part of that process we have reviewed CCTV and can keep some of that.”
The Hunts Post goes onto explain...
"HDC is hoping to attract funding from town councils in Huntingdonshire where the coverage is concentrated,"
Yes all this means is the Town Council taxpayer gets charged for this instead of HDC. If HDC is going down the differential charging route then Town taxpayers should see a discount on rubbish collection because it is cost effective to deliver this service in a Town and very cost ineffective to deliver this service in rural locations. Will rural dwellers be paying more for their bins to be collected? No they won't!


And the Conservative cheerleader that is the Hunts Post also does its bit for misinformation with this:

A year ago residents were facing HDC having to cut more than 120 jobs, ditch its CCTV surveillance scheme, double parking charges and cut the opening hours of its call centre and leisure centres, and a reduction from £485,000 a year to just £85,000 in funding for charities, as it tried to deal with the large hole left in its budget by the coalition Government’s cuts.

Yet many of these cuts were envisioned before the Coalition cuts came in. HDC had a massive deficit problem and was running out of reserves. This is main reason behind the cuts. Yes, the Coalition added to this but HDC and their cheerleader the Hunts Post hide behind the false premise.

Also in the article is the following:
"And while the Council Tax precept was frozen in April, residents faced the prospect that it could rise by nearly 20 per cent in April 2012."
Only if there was a referendum!


The answer to the original question: "Should we take what Cllr Ablewhite says on face value?", the answer is NO. The 24% figure is wildly wrong and gives a totally false impression of where the funding goes.

What Cllr Ablewhite should be talking about is how the New Homes Bonus nicked from St Neots et al is currently propping up a failing budget. And the Hunts Post should be looking into the finances and why cuts are necessary rather than doing puff pieces as a cheerleader. It doesn't even look into why HDC's own accounts are late.

Article on the swimming pool in Hunts Post

The Hunts Post St Neots - 09/02/2011 digital edition

The Hunts Post has a very good large article on the future of the outdoor swimming pool. There is not guarantee that this will go ahead. Until the money is in the bank (trust deed says half the money has to go to HDC) and all disputes are resolved the Town Council/SNSPT don't know what to do.

The original way of funding the swimming pool was a mixture of public funding and local fundraising. All coming together to achieve an aim for the Town. Now we rely on the Town Council/SNSPT to get their acts together to provide a facility in Riversmead. This is not a good location.

Priory Park would be a good location to put this facility. With the Town Council looking to give up land at Shady Walk so why not in Priory Park? 

What Paul Davis, Friends of Priory Park, misses is the swimming pool land has already been the subject of a Development brief which allowed encroachment of Priory Park. Putting a care home on the site would therefore be easy, in outline. Putting a new swimming pool on the site is not financially viable. The money needing to be raised is large and will effectively stop this development in its tracks.

No clear thinking?

The Hunts Post - 29/12/2010

A letter from Russell Taylor of St Neots appears in the Hunts Post talking about flood risk to the new housing development. Looking at the Environment Agency website he is wrong.

There is some risk, but the main risk is to the Parklands area rather than the new development. This risk has been lessened by building up the ground at the new development site.

Funny Poll on Hunts Post website

Surely some mistake. Is it YES to paying more Council Tax and NO to service cuts? Doesn't make any sense. I know the Hunts Post is the cheerleader for the Conservatives, but fixing the Poll like this makes no sense.

Overspend issues - Letter in Hunts Post

As I've said before the deficit has little effect on the budget deficit. What Al Thomson is doing, in the Hunts Post, is creating an urban myth rather than looking into why HDC has a deficit. This deficit was around long before Pathfinder House was built. There is no overspend on Pathfinder House so no cost cutting exercise as a result. Mr Thomson where is your evidence to back up your lies. 

So all the ignorant aren't in St Neots. There are some in Huntingdon. Whilst the layman may not know who does what, the Council Taxpayer should know as the information comes with the Council Tax bills. 

What about us? - Letter in Hunts Post

Why does The Hunts Post publish letters from the ignorant of St Neots. Is it because the rest of Huntingdonshire can therefore have a laugh at the residents of St Neots? Time and again St Neots residents write in to show their ignorance of the pure facts.

Fact: St Neots Parish is larger than Huntingdon Parish by size and the number of residents.

Killer Fact: The Huntingdon conurbation is roughly 65,000 in population whilst St Neots has a population of roughly 30,000.

It is the killer fact that means the Huntingdon gets far more in services than St Neots. Blaming what is wrong in St Neots by keep quoting the wrong fact misses the whole point. Instead of looking for what is right for St Neots, residents end up looking at Huntingdon and trying to make St Neots the clone of Huntingdon.

Why more cuts? Letter in Hunts Post

In the 29/09/2010 edition of the Hunts Post, there is a letter from P Attwood over the cuts. There is a fundamental misunderstanding about the cuts needed to balance the budget at HDC. Whilst P. Attwood talks of saving £2 million making roughly £6.6 million over 3 years. This is simply too little. All Attwood is reducing the annual wage bill from £26 million to £24 million.

HDC has to cut £8 million a year. This means the cut in the wage bill would not be from £26 million to £24 million but from £26 million to £18 million.

I just wonder whether HDC will run a correction or let this misleading information carry on?


The problem with all the figures being banded about is they aren't being put in context. When Cllr Bates talks about a reduction of £5 million over 3 years, this actually means a reduction in the budget from £24 million to £19 million over a 3 year period.

Unless the residents understand the problems inflicted by the Conservatives on HDC they will not understand the cuts or increases in Council Tax needed to resolve these inflicted problems.

Comment in Hunts Post

Whilst I do enjoy some of the leader comments I have to say this is a very disjointed. What is left out of this Comment is a critical analysis of Djanogly's actions. Instead this a banner waving pro-Djanogly comment which whitewashes what he did.

Lest we forget, Djanogly spent most of his time as a MP as a lawyer. He claimed for a cleaner and for a gardener - even though his London home has a very small garden. Although he paid back £25,000 he did claim the money in the first place!


Comment also asserts that Senior Tories deny having spoken to the Djanoglys' sleuths. As Hunts Post points out "any fool can find someone to describe someone else as "lazy", incompetent or ineffective". How does the Hunts Post know this? Is this the standard of journalism that exists at Hunts Post? Obviously it is!

If the private detectives were calling the wrong people that Djanogly didn't specify then they weren't doing their jobs properly. Djanogly should look for his money back!

Whilst Djanogly did good work over HLS, how long can he live on these laurels? The problem is Djanogly is out of touch with the local party. What is important to the Huntingdon Constituency is we have an MP in touch with local concerns and doing what is best for the constituency. Much of this is done by the employees and interns.

In hindsight the way Djanogly could have stopped all these problems was not to claim these expenses for a job he does part-time. All Djanoglys' problems are of his own creation. Blaming The Daily Telegraph for all these faults is deflecting the blame from the only person to blame for his woes and that person is Djanogly!

Another error by Hunts Post

I was reading about of the sorry state of the Ramsey Pre-school in an article in the Hunts Post. (This is reproduced below). As the article states this Pre-school is a registered charity I thought I would use the Charity Commission public search facility to find out more about this Pre-school.

What I found was somewhat shocking. This pre-school, which pleads poverty, hasn't made returns to the Charity Commission for the last 3 years.

So why didn't the Hunts Post do this little bit of investigation? If the Hunts Post did a bit more investigating it could have had a quick look at the last filed accounts. This will show in the 2006 accounts there was £37,000 in the bank. 4 years later they are pleading poverty. The big question is where has the £37,000 gone?

The Hunts Post has done a puff piece for a "Charity" which is failing to file accounts and returns. This is wrong!

Hunts Post is wrong over parking

I think the Hunts Post has got hold of the wrong end of the stick on this one. In the Comment part of the paper there is an expectation that this will be a money spinner for HDC.

But the report to a Council Committee actually says something different. It is likely this will run at an overall deficit. 

Instead of being the money spinner The Hunts Post is promoting this is likely to add to the deficit.

The last time I looked, that was a few years ago, parking on zig-zags are not a parking offence. It is a Road Traffic Offence with penalty points and therefore is still a Police enforcement issue.

Comments on one letter in The Hunts Post - 05/05/2010

The Hunts Post St Neots - 05/05/2010

MP morally wrong - Paul Sinclair informs us in his letter about the problems many normal Conservative voters have about Djanogly. Where we differ is Paul feels Djanogly broke an unwritten moral code. I feel Djanogly should be held to account by his electorate over his expenses.

My comments on letters in The Hunts Post - 21/04/2010

The Hunts Post St Neots - 21/04/2010

My comments on letters in this weeks paper.

Nothing achieved for this town - Terry Cooper seems to want his cake and eat it. The problem with what goes on is the dreams of politicians in reality cost. Tax has to go up to pay for all these promises. An example are the Liberal Democrats who had a bold vision for St Neots through the Forward Plan only to fail through the lack of resources. This was due to the Liberal Democrats not wanting to impose the tax rises needed to get this programme through.

Under the same heading Roger Skillin has a go at the outdoor pool and the cinema. The trouble is the land and money is dedicated to an outdoor swimming pool. But Roger goes in for the politics of envy as the answer. It isn't. The main reason why Huntingdon gets more than St Neots is because the Huntingdon and the surrounding towns together are far larger than St Neots.

Idea's a real loo-ser - J Barrett has a go at HDC over the closure of the public loos in Huntingdon. It is easy to say no. With a £6.1 million deficit HDC has got to cut somewhere. Cllr Pat Taylor has a go at HDC over the closure of the toilets in Ramsey. This just shows how badly the Conservatives at HDC handled this decision.

Don't swing arts axe - Where has Jean Chandler been? The axe has already been swung and the arts budget has been chopped. With £6.1 million of cuts due, restoration of these arts cuts just won't happen.

The Hunts Post debate

I went to the Hunts Post Election debate. I thought it was a good night out. It was well run and organised event. The Hunts Post should be praised. They should also be praised for changing their minds and inviting all candidates to the debate.

The only candidate missing was The Animal Protection Party candidate. I suppose you can't really expect her to come all the way up from Kent to debate here in Huntingdon.

The debate lasted nearly 2.5 hours. Lord Toby Jug nearly fell off the stage. If a candidate dies this means the poll would be postponed. It has in Thirsk. The debate was videoed and will be on the Hunts Post website later.

So who one. I my biased opinion I thought Jonathan Salt edged it over Jonathan Djanogly and Martin Land who are both tied in second place. In fourth place was John Clare who did very well as the Green Candidate. I was surprised. Lord Toby Jug was fifth. Sixth was Anthea Cox and last was Ian Curtis.

May 6: District's date with destiny

The Hunts Post St Neots - 21/04/2010 digital edition

Ian MacKellar misses the elephant sitting in the room in the District Elections and that is the £6.1 million of cuts needed to balance the budget. I know the Hunts Post likes the Conservatives but not mentioning the financial mess the District Council is wrong!

Also, what is wrong with this article:

There are 52 seats - not 53. There are 17 seats up for grabs. 12 are Conservative. 3 Liberal Democrat. 1 UKIP and 1 Independent.

Also the article states: "....they have been in complete disarray over car parking charges, which in most cases doubled overnight after persistent dithering at Cabinet level." This is simply untrue. Car Park charges haven't doubled. Where have they? The persistent "dithering" wasn't the Cabinet but was a result of this useless council set up imposed by this useless Labour Government.

The Hunts Post relents over hustings

The Hunts Post St Neots - 21/04/2010

Hunts Post relented and allowed all seven candidates into the hustings. Too right. Why should a minor party like the Labour Party get a lift by the Hunts Post.

My Comments on letters in The Hunts Post - 14/04/2010

The Hunts Post St Neots - 14/04/2010

We've had enough of these increases - This is a letter from Anthony Barraclough complaining about St Ives Town Council and the increase in Council. Tax. He asks the question: "What protection does the UK Government give, by capping or other means....". The UK parliament has given you the following. You can stand for election. That is what the Independents did when they took control of St Ives Town Council. The Tax rises are a consequence of democracy.

Our own hustings - The minor party hustings are up and running. Good for them. On the same night though. I just wonder whether I should do both?

My comments on letters in the Hunts Post - 7/4/10

The Hunts Post St Neots - 07/04/2010 digital edition

Working to resolve problem - Why the Liberal Democrats allow Doug Terry a pen I have to wonder! What Doug missed was the new cemetery was supposed to be in Bedfordshire on the Eaton Socon side. The family wants a burial in St Neots!

All this goes back to the reign of Giles and Thorpe. After Devonald, the previous Town Clerk, left the duo cut back on the replacement of the Town Clerk. This left the Town Council in a mess. It is stupid that the Town Clerk had her holiday cancelled for what is a mess created by the Liberal Democrats.

Town is going to the dogs - E Page is right to point out what she feels is wrong in Huntingdon. I just wish our St. Neots politicians and some of the public also have a read of this letter. I know they look at Huntingdon through rose tinted glasses. Time for a reality check.

Looking for a spark - Bob Mullineaux is right about the Conservatives opening up the selection process. He is wrong though in thinking the Conservatives have money to carry out an all postal ballot selection contest. Since Djanogly became MP the HCCA finances have been on a slow nose dive.

This is really a test case - M King is right but misses the point over Hinchingbrooke. Franchising is Labour Government policy and the privatisation of the NHS by stealth has been underway for a decade.

Claims challenged - Derek Giles wades into the car parks charging issue. True, I can't find the Conservative petition being presented. It is a pity that Cllr Giles can't stand up and admit his mistakes when he was Leader of SNTC.

Hunts Post denies valid candidate a voice!

I see on Twitter that The Hunts Post is denying Lord Toby Jug a place on the stage for their special election debate. Why not. Didn't he beat Labour into last place at the County Elections in 2009! Looking at the Euro Vote if the loonies aren't allowed then Labour shouldn't be either. The Euro result was Conservative, UKIP, Liberal Democrats, Green, Labour. The Labour vote squeaked in just above the BNP.

If the Hunts Post is going to ditch candidates with no hope they should start with Anthea Cox. As Anthea has no hope of winning the Huntingdon Constituency.

I feel all the candidates should be invited and not discriminate against the loonies.

My comments on letters in the Hunts Post 24/03/10

The Hunts Post St Neots - 24/03/2010 digital edition

My comments on the letters in this weeks Hunts Post.

Council just plugging cash gaps - Jon Mountfort has got this wrong. There is no such thing as "Free Parking". Someone has to pay. It is either the user or Council tax payer.

1. Business rates go to the Government. So more money in rates only helps the Government.

2. If people are driving to Bedford, Peterborough or Cambridge to avoid a 20 pence parking charge they have more money than sense.

3. The Car Parks will still need to be monitored and maintained. Who pays for this? Why the Council Taxpayer!

The reason Whittlesey or Chatteris don't charge is the Council Taxpayer picks up the bill. A bill of £410,000. On the otherhand the HDC uses revenue to subsidise other services to the tune of £526,000. If car parks are made "Free", in Huntingdonshire, this will lose all the revenue and add the costs as per Fenland. This will roughly add an extra £1 million to the massive deficit of £6.1 million that Conservative run HDC has no idea how to deal with!

Toilet Troubles - Barbara Brett shows how sometimes the voluntary sector can be slower than Councils. Where have the H and G Civic Society been? A week to go before the closure and they come forward. The whole reason behind the closures is the massive budget deficit which HDC is running.