Hillingdon Council is asking for a £150 million government bailout but it isn’t free money. It represents more than a £1400 debt for every single household in the borough, a burden we will be paying back with interest for the next 20 years—money that will service debt rather than fund local services. While the Council […]
Archive | Issues
What Now? What do you think? You have until Wednesday to tell the Council
The Budget Consultation is open until Wednesday. Unlike the Council’s own introduction to the budget consultation, where they didn’t even include a link to the budget itself, or any suggestion that there was anything to see, we encourage you to read it. Flick through and see what you can find. Let us know if […]
Summary: The Case for Concern – is something broken at our Civic Centre?
This series of articles brings together recent, documented failures at Hillingdon Council. Individually, each might be dismissed as an error or an oversight. Taken together, and set alongside formal audit warnings and resident complaints, they raise a more serious question about whether the Council’s systems of governance, financial control and accountability are functioning as they […]
Are they taking heed of the “Section 24” warnings?
Finally, we must ask whether the administration is listening to its own auditors. Last summer, Ernst & Young (EY) issued a rare Section 24 Recommendation, warning of “systemic weaknesses” in financial governance and “unreliable forecasts.” Crucially, this warning came after the Council had already launched its £1.8 million Finance Modernisation Programme and Governance Review in […]
Decision-Making Based on Flawed Data
To make sound decisions – whether on multi-million pound budgets or local planning applications – a Council must rely on accurate, up-to-date evidence. Yet, we are seeing a recurring pattern where significant decisions in Hillingdon are being driven by data that is demonstrably wrong, cherry-picked, or simply does not exist. This is not just a […]
