YOUR coverage of the 16th Nov BCP Council scrutiny meeting (‘Budget concerns about lack of detail’ – Echo, 21 Nov) touched on a number of serious issues with the delivery of the council’s transformation programme but without making them explicit.

All agree that the council’s transformation programme is the route to sorting the council’s finances.

Yet we see the Tories more interested in planning to spend the savings than in working to achieve the savings.

Just assuming the savings can all be made, the Nov 16 meeting added to the overwhelming evidence that the delay and dither of the Conservatives running BCP Council is already costing council finances tens of millions.

Consider the £10m of transformation savings for next year. This is described as comprising entirely ‘third party spend’ savings.

Give half of the net transformation savings are such savings, we hear the council leader admitting in the meeting that the Tories “haven’t touched those savings since we came in.” Such omission is unforgivable.

The Unity Alliance who these Tories ousted had quickly identified such savings as “early benefit” which “will be focussed on”. Yet for the last two years the Tories haven’t even looked at them.

They can’t yet even point to which ‘third party spend’ will yield these savings.

They are just assuming the estimated savings can all be made while making their grand plans on how to spend them.

DR MARTIN RODGER

Bloxworth Road, Parkstone