Regular readers of virtual-lancaster will recall we reported how the government had announced the launch of of a new online search engine that shows local taxpayers when they can inspect their council’s detailed financial spending and ledgers as part of greater public transparency.
Frankly, here at VL we think this was a waste of public money — and we’d love to know how much money it cost when the government is bleating about making budget savings, often, it seems, at the expense of the poor and physically and mentally challenged. It is quicker to type’accounts + the name of your local authority‘ into Google to get there.
Lancaster City Council’s statement of accounts for 2010 is here. Apparently, there is still some £4 million stuck in Iceland that we have some hopes of recovering. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, local ‘armchair auditor’ Rick Seymour who has gone through the Councils 29,000 plus payments from 2010 and has been putting their accounts through the wringer and has thrown up some interesting data which he’s published on his web site, including details of Lancaster Council spend per department 2010.
The data below comes from spending data released as part of the Public Right of Inspection period (July 2011) to cover financial period 2010/11 and does not include internal costs such as wages, pensions etc (external costs only)
| Department Name | Total |
| Property Services | 6191344 |
| Financial Services | 5739670 |
| Environmental Services | 5533901 |
| Council Housing (HRA) | 4959293 |
| Regeneration and Policy | 2960272 |
| Community Engagement | 2532631 |
| Health & Strategic Housing | 1065147 |
| Information Services | 535891 |
| Governance | 215007 |
| Democratic Services | 202444 |
| Office of the Chief Executive | 10231 |
| Corporate Strategy | 1429 |
He’s also neatly laid out a list of all new contracts (over £50k), for you to browse at http://j.mp/LCC_Contracts_2010, which include the £1,012,950 spent on refurbishing Morecambe Town Hall.
You can request to view any of the contracts by contacting Lancaster City Council finance department or going into town hall.
Finally, he’s created a way for you to see every payment the Council has made: just click on the name of a company below and you’ll find out how much they were paid. The full list is here. For example, here’s how much the Council spent on rail travel last year – £3803.44 in total. It’s an intriguing snapshot of just how many local businesses benefit, large or small, on Council spending – and how the reduction of such spending could impact on them.
If anyone would like to get in touch with him to help go through more detailed stuff, you can contact him through his website.
Sample Local Businesses
• E.ON
• Heritage Cards And Souvenirs Ltd
• Nicholas Evans Designer & Screen Printer
• Pagefast
• Pagefast Print & Publishing Ltd
Sample Marketing and Advertising
• @Lancaster Community Magazine
Sample National Businesses
• Amazon
Travel
• Virgin
Utilities
• BT
• npower
• United Utilities Utility Solutions (E&CS) Ltd
• Vodafone
Other Councils
• West Dorset District Council
Postage and other Delivery Services
• DHL
Local Community Organisations
• Gregson Community Association Ltd
• Lancashire Wildlife Trust Ltd
• Lancaster Citizens Advice Bureau
• Morecambe FC Community Sports
• Storey Creative Industries Centre
• The Storey Creative Industries Centre
Sample Government Departments
• Northwest Development Agency
Some Local Education
Miscellaneous…
• Accounting Officer Ministry of Defence
• Ken Dodd
Thank you to everyone that's had a look at what Lancaster City Council is spending in your name.
You can comment on any of the spending items by clicking on "amount" column.
Any comment made I'll request the invoice from the council … and put a feed of what people are requesting….
Collaborative analysis! 🙂
I really want to know what you think… or what.. or how it could be better!
Get in touch
Rick… the programmer