Calderdale Council is warned to avoid unrealistic targets

The council’s cabinet agreed a plan to make the authority more commercially astute.

One of the recommendations in the report to council chiefs says the local authority’s budgeting process should be revised to avoid staff being given unrealistic targets to hit financially as the result can be self-defeating.

“Avoid operating units being given targets which are considered unrealistic and therefore unachievable, with resultant low levels of commitment,” the report said.

The document goes on to say that some of the more significant income targets, for example parking services, have been realigned in recent years as part of the ongoing budget process.

By October this year the council’s head of finance will complete a review of fees and charges. The news comes following a warning that there is only enough money in Calderdale Council’s coffers to maintain much of the property it owns at a minimum level.

This week the council’s corporate and management facilities asset management board heard the service faces problems funding building upkeep, severely limiting which it can maintain and improve. The portfolio ranges in size from key buildings like Halifax Borough Market to the Victoria Theatre and the Shay Stadium.

A spokesperson for Calderdale Council said: “To ensure that we can make the most of the buildings we continue to run we have proposed a programme of essential work on a number of our buildings.”