All shipshape at once 'rudderless' Craven District Council (From Craven Herald)

All shipshape at once 'rudderless' Craven District Council

11:50am Friday 14th October 2011 in News

A dramatic turnabout in the finances of Craven District Council has been compared to a once-floundering ship now sailing into calmer waters.

“Frigate Craven” had been re-masted and fitted out with a new crew headed by chief executive “Captain Horatio Shevlin”, councillors were told at last week’s full council meeting.

At the end of March this year, the council had achieved a £1.2 million surplus on the provision of services, increased its general fund balance by £429,000 to £598,000, and increased earmarked reserves by £108,000.

Coun Stephen Place (Ind), chairman of audit and governance, welcomed the Audit Commission’s recent annual governance report which had given the council a clean bill of health, issued an unqualified opinion and raised only minor issues.

Coun Place, who described himself as “Deckhand Place”, said the report stated that the council had significantly improved its financial position, had proper arrangements in place to secure “value for money” and, even better, the audit had been completed within the agreed fee.

It was a dramatic turnaround, said Coun Place, from a few years ago when the council had been compared to a “rudderless, dismasted ship in a fiscal storm”.

Back then, it was about to “flounder on the rocks of bankruptcy” and enter a Pirates Of The Caribbean nightmare of “undersea ghosts and ghouls” with Captain Jack Sparrow frantically bailing out with a leaky bucket, he said.

But he added: “Now, Frigate Craven has had her bottom scraped and re-coppered, re-masted with a new sail and is fully manned with trained crew, battle-hardened officers, under the watchful eye of Captain Horatio Shevlin.

“Frigate Craven is leeward, running before the wind into calmer waters of sound, financial management, full financial accountability, openness and honesty, while delivering real value for money.”

The statement of accounts – giving a fair and true view of the council’s financial position at March 31 – had been signed off and in time.

Council leader Coun Chris Knowles-Fitton (Cons) said it was a major turn-round and a remarkable achievement.