THE BEACON can now reveal the full extent of the massive cash crisis which is facing Monmouthshire County Council, a crisis which might well, in a year or two, take the authority into bankruptcy. It appears the authority is something like £14million in debt, with massive, across the board cuts being planned for the next financial year, which begins on April 1. These cuts will, as readers will see, hit all walks of life, but particularly the young and the elderly. However, there is much more to the crisis at County Hall that just cash, we have discovered. The authority spent £55,000 on the installation of a new computer system in the County Planning Department. The aim was to ensure the planning system worked much more efficiently. The complete opposite has happened, with the system in almost meltdown. One top ranking officer told The Beacon this week the Planning Department was "muddling through". We have been given a copy of a letter which one local parish clerk has sent to Mr George Ashworth, Head of Planning at the County Council. The letter reveals the full crisis in the Planning Department. "This is to place on record that I am unable to discharge my duties which involve planning matters with the efficiency to which our council is entitled due to mistakes within your section" said the letter from Mr Roy Nicholas, highly respected Clerk to Llangattock Vibon Avel Community Council. The letter added: "Whilst we have a degree of sympathy for the difficulties which your section has encountered with the new computer program, we cannot accept the on going mistakes with mailing. "In particular we suffer both from receiving mail which is not intended for us and from not receiving applications which are our direct concern. "I have complained consistently, but to no avail. Our worst instance last year was when we received thirteen items within a fortnight which should have been sent to councils in the south of the county. "Our first few days of 2007 do not augur well. Last Thursday I was asked for our response to an amended application. "On saying that we had not received the correspondence, I was told it had been sent to the wrong community council. Receipt of those plans is still awaited. "Today I am in receipt of an application, which applies to a property in Llanhennock. Is there no end to these mistakes in sight?" Mr Nicholas said, when the matters had been raised at a county meeting, staff in the Planning Department had said there were problems with "areas which began with Llan". We put this claim to Mr David Swanson, in the County Planning Department, on Monday and he admitted both staff and the highly expensive new computer system were having problems with certain names, most notably those that began with Llan. He also admitted that serious and long standing problems were being met with the new computer system. Admitting that staff were "muddling through", the officer conceded "We haven't sorted it out yet, we are having huge problems with the whole system". We put it to him that the firm responsible for the computer system should be told they had to have it up and running immediately, but he said that was not possible. He also declined to say how much the computer system, installation and software had cost county taxpayers. The consultation period has now got under way in a bid to set a county budget for the next financial year. Already, as The Beacon revealed last week, massive cuts in spending will have to be made. In addition to those areas mentioned last week, we can also disclose that £88,000 will have to be saved in school improvements. There will be savings of £61,000 in arts and development; £194,000 in the library service, with restructuring across the library service and the possible closure of the mobile libraries. Adult education is likely to see cuts of £135,000; sports development and the youth service might have cuts of £156,000, and museums and leisure centres could have cuts of around £185,000.
