Durham County Council taken to task over invoice delays

UNKNOWN bills for hosting elections are hampering parish budgets – that was the verdict of members Barnard Castle Town Council.
Costs for parish elections have taken months and sometimes more than a year to be processed and sent out by Durham County Council.
This has meant problems for smaller councils around the dale who want to work out their spending in advance.
Members of the town
council resources committee wanted more pressure put on county officials to get the
invoices through faster.
Cllr David Kinch said: “I know some councils have had to wait nearly a year before they get the bill.
“You are setting budgets and then all of a sudden you get a bill – it would be nice if the county council would say.
“They must know how much it will cost somewhere along the line.”
Expenses for polling booths, officers and transport to collect ballots are shared equally between county and parish councils at election time. A town council by-election in May 2016 cost £4,067 but the invoice only arrived in March this year, while the bill for an east ward by-election in December 2015 took five months to arrive.
Cllr Kinch added: “It must be a headache for the town clerk when you get an unknown figure which is then more than anticipated.
“Surely you do not need 12 months – if you do not put pressure on, they are going to carry on doing it.”
Cllr Judi Sutherland said: “It’s preventing us from making prudent provisions for the accounts.”
Estimates and information on how much the elections could cost are also undisclosed by the county council,  putting parishes further into the dark.
Cllr Tony Cooke added: “I know they have problems but we’ve got our own problems. If the boot was on the other foot they would complain about a lack of information.”
David Collingwood, the county council’s electoral services manager, apologised for the delay in issuing the invoice for the west ward by-election.
He said: “We do try to issue invoices within two months of a by-election but, unfortunately, on this occasion,
due to the volume of work
our electoral services team was dealing with at the time – including the EU referendum, PCC election and an annual canvass, this did not happen.
“We have provided estimates to parish councils in the past for the cost of by-elections when they have requested them.
“However, it can be difficult to give a precise estimate and it is not possible to do this for all 102 parishes.
“That said, councils can estimate possible costs themselves based on previous elections.”
Town councillors agreed to send a note through to county officials. A message about the election costs will also be taken through to the next meeting of CDALC (County Durham Association of Local Councils).