Council Department that's racking up millions in overspending pays out £758k on Taxis...

The Shocking Figures were unearthed following a HBC Exposed investigation into overspending at the Council's Children's & Joint Commissioning Service.....

7th December 2024

A council department which has racked up millions of pounds worth of budget overspending is being accused of 'squandering tax payers money', after its been unearthed the local council which in 2023 was declared an authority of no public confidence shelled out over three quarters of a million pounds just in payments for taxis alone, sparking calls for greater financial oversight into the 'troubled' council department.

It comes following claims Hartlepool Borough Councils getting set to rubber-stamp a near 5% council tax increase to households in January adding hundreds of pounds to household bills, as well as a raft of saving proposals, which according to documents already been seen by HBC Exposed could in just months see the end of council parking concessions for locals such as free parking on a Sundays & even free council funded public events such as fireworks displays being slashed in a bid to stave off a budget crisis next year..

Sally Robinson, HBC's Children's & Joint Commissioning Services Director is said to be being called upon to explain the huge sums being paid out, following claims the payments do not represent "value for money"

The Councils Children's Services Director Sally Robinson is said to be coming under increasing pressure to explain the huge payments being made using public funds following claims the burden to the local tax payer every year is now just £200k shy of the councils combined budget spent on its seven senior directors in the form of yearly salaries & pension contributions, with Hartlepool Borough Council said to be grappling with a projected budget deficit of between £10.0 & £13.0 million pounds over the next three years.

Despite claims of 'warnings' supposedly given to Children's Services from the council’s Managing Director to restrict departmental spending to 'essential items only', a source told HBC Exposed during our investigation that "costs are literally spiralling out of control", with the whistle blower urging us to examine the council’s taxi bills as a starting point – and what we found was shocking.

Payments made to just one Single Taxi Firm total over £750k for the year....

One taxi company in Hartlepool is taking over three quarters of a million pounds every year from local Tax Payers whilst locals reportedly struggle to book a taxi themselves....

A detailed review of the council’s expenditure sheets for the previous financial quarters unearthed an astonishing revelation. Over just one financial quarter, more than £302,000 of public money was paid to a single local taxi firm & paid directly from the councils Children's & Joint Commissioning services account.

When figures from other previous financial quarters were then added together, the total ballooned to approximately £758,000 pounds for the year.

Runaway train spending

& no ones doing anything about it, council source told us !

Children's Services at HBC is consistently overspending year on year, but some sources are claiming HBC directors are sitting back & letting it all happen..

The revelations said to put the £144,000 a year Director of Children’s Services Sally Robinson well & truly into the spotlight as being unfit to run the embattled council department, Where its claimed from the source that spending under her watch "resembles a runaway train", with numerous members of staff said to be calling for her to step down, as the department plunges ever deeper in to the red & members of staff reportedly frightened to speak out...

No Leadership, No plan.... No Goal, HBC Exposed is told !

Employee confidence in the embattled director is said to be "at rock bottom", in what many HBC staff claim is a department that's 'rudderless' & 'poorly run'.

Previous calls for the councils children's services to be investigated over its "unusually high expenditure" has fallen on deaf ears, however with council tax increases said to be meeting increasingly stronger resistance from struggling locals, behind the scenes, its said to be becoming ever more difficult to justify further spending cuts & council tax increases in the face of such blatant mismanagement of the public purse, as ever increasing numbers of local tax payers claim something seriously wrong with a council department that's slowly bankrupting the local council & perhaps worst still....thinks £750k on payments to a Taxi Firm is a responsible use of council tax payers money ...