City council deputy blasts 'factually inaccurate' statements by 4 county councillors

HE SAYS IT IS A MATTER OF ‘CORRECTING THE PUBLIC RECORD’

- By JOE LOCKER Tocal Democracy Reporter

FOUR county councillors have been asked to retract statements about Nottingham City Council that have been described as “factually inaccurate’

Councillor Ethan Radford, the Labour-run council’s deputy leader, says “a number of factually inaccurate statements” were made at last week’s full Nottinghamshire County Council meeting at Oak House.

The four county councillors are Councillor Sam Smith (Con), Councillor Neil Clarke (Con), Councillor Steve Carr (Broxtowe Independent Group), and Councillor Teresa Cullen (Broxtowe Alliance).

Councillor Radford has written to all four of them asking that corrections are issued.

He said: “I feel this is a matter of correcting the public record as these statements were made in the council chamber and were minuted and broadcast.

“I am keeping this strictly to statements that were made that are factually inaccurate, not statements that are matters of opinion.”

The letter says that Councillor Smith said the city council had been “bankrupt not once, but twice”.

Councillor Radford says in his letter that this is factually inaccurate.

A council cannot technically go bankrupt in the same way a company or individual can, and instead, the chief finance director can issue what's known as a Section 114 (3) notice, when expenditure in any given year is greater than the council’s income, meaning it cannot set a balanced budget as required by law.

This Section 114 (3) notice was issued in November 2023 by the city council's then finance director.

However, the term “effectively bankrupt” is typically used as shorthand.

Councillor Radford said the first notice in 2021, issued under the separate Section 114 (2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, related to unlawful transfers of money from the authority's Housing Revenue Account (HRA) - made up of council tenants’ rent money - to the General Fund, which is used to pay for other services.