A new Reform UK Derbyshire county councillor has claimed the authority is “six months from bankruptcy” and that the party has “inherited an empire of dirt”. Cllr Dan Price, newly appointed Reform councillor for Ilkeston North on Derbyshire County Council, made the comments on Facebook on Friday, May 2, following the outcome of the election and his own successful appointment.So he is not entirely sure if it is a business or not.
He said the council was a “business” which needed to be made “profitable”. Councils are not businesses but they can own and operate arm’s length companies which primarily aim to cover their own costs.
They can administer charges for services which are then reinvested to continue and/or improve services but this is not viewed as a “profit”. Cllr Price won the Ilkeston North seat with 56 per cent of the vote, surpassing Labour in second and the Conservatives in third.
He said in a video on his Facebook page that the county council was “haemorrhaging” money with it being “wasted on gimmicks and silly policies”.He keeps claim that fixing roads and sorting out SEND have been done yet they have not formally taken control of the council yet and are utterly clueless as to what is actually needed to get these things done.
Cllr Price, chairman of Erewash Reform, said: “The council is on the verge of bankruptcy and they reckon within six months Derbyshire County Council will be bankrupt. So it is egg on our face, we have inherited an empire of dirt.
"So, no matter what we do, most likely it will blow up in our face and we will be to blame, but I think not. We will try and save this sinking ship and then we shall start trying to make a profitable (sic) and start trying to provide good services.
"But we can’t promise anything, we can’t promise the world. What, you want us to get more in debt? That is not how things run.
“We have to stave off bankruptcy, get DCC back on track, earning money, being profitable, because technically it is a business, and then we can start offering good services. We have got a hell of a job, this is a massive undertaking.
"It is almost like the opposition has purposefully ran the ship aground. We won’t fail, we will get this rectified.
“People say what are your policies? Our policies are what the people want. People want the roads sorting, it’s done, it’s a given. They want SEND improved, done. They want safer streets, done, we’ll look into that.
"They want more doctors and medical staff, done. They want public services to be more reliable, done.
“The problem is there is no money. They have haemorrhaged money, they are on the verge of bankruptcy, £410 million in debt.”
Cllr Alex Dale, the new Conservative group leader and former cabinet member for children’s services under the previous Tory administration, said: “It should be no surprise to anyone, not least someone who stood in the recent elections to serve on the authority, that the County Council has been going through a very difficult period financially. We’ve always been totally open and honest about it.
“The challenges across social care in particular have been long running and unless Reform UK have spent the last five to 10 years with their fingers in their ears, it’s hard to believe they weren’t aware of these sector-wide challenges. As a result of our management of the finances, the budget the new Reform administration is inheriting is in a much better place than it was just a couple of years ago and far better than many other authorities across the country.
“Cllr Price’s video shows that Reform are only just waking up to the fact that running local authorities, especially one as large as ours and with massive statutory duties, is far from easy, despite what they tried to suggest during the election. There will certainly be very difficult decisions to take in the months ahead, but I can reassure Cllr Price we will absolutely be holding them to account every step of the way on behalf of Derbyshire residents, as well as holding their feet to the fire for the promises they made.
“But frankly, if Reform UK no longer believe they are up to the task of serving the people of Derbyshire, they should do the decent thing: resign en masse and make way for those who will. One of their own colleagues in Newark has already done just that after less than a week in office.”
The county council was asked to confirm or deny whether the authority was currently set to go effectively “bankrupt” (councils cannot formally be declared bankrupt) in the next six months. Council officials can issue a Section 114 notice if they feel a balanced budget cannot be reached which leads to a formal freezing of new spending and can lead to direct Government intervention.
A county council spokesperson did not confirm or deny the “bankruptcy” allegations, saying: “The county council approved a balanced budget for 2025/26 at the February 2025 council meeting. The budget report at this meeting set out a number of proposals to enable the Council to maintain its financial standing.
“This will be through delivering these proposals and operating within its approved budget. Legislation sets out how councils should operate from a financial management perspective. These are detailed in various Local Government Acts and cover areas such as budgeting, financial reporting, and the management of financial resources.
satnav wrote: ↑Thu May 15, 2025 9:12 pm The Derbyshire county council has been in a lot of financial trouble for years but this is down to cuts in government funding rather than excessive spending on the part of the council. Many services are cut to he bone already so it is very difficult to see where more savings can be found.Sounds rather like Herefordshire and Shropshire, which both have appalling roads (noticeably worse than Powys over the border and worse indeed than Gloucestershire and Worcestershire). There's clearly a long standing issue with rural roads in England. We've also got the same thing in Herefordshire with lots of small primary schools, which lead a charmed life. I expect Reform will do nothing about those or the roads, just say the money's all going to black people in London.
Because Derbyshire is such a big county with lots of rural communities it has lots of extremely small schools which are expensive to run but it the council tries to close them it wold cause an almighty row and in the short run wouldn't save that much money because you would have to make staff redundant and provide free transport for any child who is forced to move to a new school. The council is already consulting on getting rid of a number of care homes but the fall out from closing these homes will be immense especially if there is lots of media coverage of old people in their 80s being forced to move to new care homes.
Reform reckon they will sort the roads but because of the size of the county the cost of repairing all these roads will be immense and take years.
Watchman wrote: ↑Thu May 15, 2025 9:11 pm Leicestershire’s contribution!Ha ha ha. Sounds like the Police put a fair bit of effort into getting him kicked out, finding out that he'd gone on holiday to Barcelona and been working in his sideline business while off sick. No "You're a good copper, Andy,. Don't piss the job about again,, eh?" Book well and truly thrown. May not have been the first time he'd pulled strokes.
New Leicestershire Reform councillor was fired from police force
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news ... source=app
And he’s now deputy leader of the council
Reform UK has officially taken over control of Durham County Council, renaming several key departments to remove references to climate change and equality and inclusion.
The party, which has 65 councillors, swept to victory in the local elections to gain an overall majority.
New council leader Andrew Husband said he had had "positive" discussions with the most senior non-political managers about their plans for the local authority, which is one of England's largest councils...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7zz55652do.amp
... Several departments and cabinet titles were renamed at a meeting earlier.I bet the people of Co. Durham are glad that's sorted.
The previous neighbourhood and climate change position is now neighbourhoods and environment, while equality and inclusion has been changed to stronger communities and belonging...
Yug wrote: ↑Wed May 21, 2025 5:54 pm Your local councillors - working for you and doing what's important.Yep, they'll be dancing in the streets of Esh Winning and Tow Law over that.
Reform UK has officially taken over control of Durham County Council, renaming several key departments to remove references to climate change and equality and inclusion.
The party, which has 65 councillors, swept to victory in the local elections to gain an overall majority.
New council leader Andrew Husband said he had had "positive" discussions with the most senior non-political managers about their plans for the local authority, which is one of England's largest councils...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7zz55652do.amp
... Several departments and cabinet titles were renamed at a meeting earlier.I bet the people of Co. Durham are glad that's sorted.
The previous neighbourhood and climate change position is now neighbourhoods and environment, while equality and inclusion has been changed to stronger communities and belonging...
Bosses at Reform’s first pub - at a former Conservative club in Blackpool - said they only accidentally agreed to host a two-day neo-Nazi gig.https://bsky.app/profile/stephengraham. ... qq3mkkbk2w
Meanwhile, one of The Talbot’s co-owners has also defended having a house in Spain - despite his venue in Milbourne Street in the town centre, which has been painted bright blue, displaying the anti-immigration party’s logos outside.
While chiefs at the venue have said “everybody and anyone is welcome” and insist there is “no racism here”, they have also joked about serving “pints of Remainer tears” and the resort’s “best gammon” - an apparent reference to the slur typically used against white, middle-aged men whose politics lean to the right.
And last August, The Talbot was due to host a neo-Nazi concert that was only axed after campaign group Hope Not Hate reported on it.
The event, dubbed the Real Rebellion, was being organised by Britain’s most prominent Nazi music promoter Chad Charles, The Blackpool Lead reported previously.
Speaking at the time, Talbot co-owner Nick Lowe said: “It’s nowt to do with me, I just rent the room out.
“I’m not racist at all but I have to make money somehow.”
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