THE Conservative leader on Darlington Borough Council has today apologised for an error in an article she wrote for The Northern Echo about cuts facing the authority.

Heather Scott: The Government is not to blame for Darlington's woes

Councillor Heather Scott wrote in Wednesday's article that Darlington Borough Council had 53 officers earning salaries of at least £74,000. The accurate figure is ten.

Councillor Scott has issued the statement below:

"I have to apologise for the inaccurate figure regarding numbers of officers in Darlington council receiving £74,000 salaries in 2015/16 quoted in my article of the 10th February.

"The true figure is 10 receiving £74,000 and 29 receiving £50,000.

"I accept responsibility for the error and the moral is that rather than accepting information in good faith you should double check before going into print. I stand by the rest of the article and reinforce the proposal that we all should be working together in the interest of the residents of Darlington.

"I have lobbied Government in the past and will continue when there is merit for doing so."

But Darlington council leader Bill Dixon said the Conservative group leader had made other mistakes in the piece with the council’s debt charges currently £3.1 million a year, not £4.1 million as claimed.  

He added: “Which schemes do they not want us to fund – schools, roads, car parks or economic development?

“It is strange that they always agree with proposals for such things as car parks and the Department for Education building and then complain about levels of debt

“Of the £151 million debt - £71m of this relates to the housing revenue account which is a separate business funded by tenants and nothing to do with the council’s general finances.  

 “Very interestingly £33m of the debt in respect of the housing revenue account was forced on the council by the Government as part of their changes to how local government housing was funded.”

Mr Dixon added that Darlington’s estimated debt per head of population in Darlington for 2015/16  of £29.92 was lower than North Yorkshires at £43.10 and the average for all unitary authorities which is £64.38.

The leader added that he looked forward to Tory amendments on member allowances if they believed payments were too high “including a cut to the leader of the opposition’s combined allowance of £17,200.”

Cllr Scott claimed The Northern Echo was briefed on the cuts before opposition councillors, but this was rejected by Cllr Dixon.

He said: “Cllr Scott was briefed on the budget on 21 January 2016 and was offered more meetings but these were not taken up.”

Cllr Dixon said that since 2000 £850,000  has been spend on maintaining the Covered Market.

“It is easy to say there is a lack of investment but what would they have stopped to fund spending on the market?” he added.