South Derbyshire District Council Fighting To Keep Escalating Costs of Coronavirus Crisis To A Minimum

South Derbyshire District Council leader Cllr Martyn Ford admits this is not the time to guess how much the Coronavirus crisis will cost the district.

Cash-strapped Derbyshire councils are losing millions of pounds in vital income each month and are footing an unsustainable bill for fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

And Cllr Ford said: "At the moment all of our efforts are being concentrated in keeping vital services operating for our residents, tenants and businesses.

"It would not be helpful to estimate at this time the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic to the council. Once we are over the initial phase, work will be carried out to calculate the costs incurred.

"Please be assured, we will then work to reduce any negative impact and ensure that our services continue to be provided with as little disruption as possible."

Councils, both city and county, district and borough, are responsible for bin collections, looking after our most vulnerable adults and children, along with our schools, roads and emergency responses.

All councils have had their budgets reduced over the past few years and millions more in cuts are forecast this year.

The Covid-19 pandemic is proving to be another colossal financial strain on already stretched authorities, legally responsible to provide essential services.

They are funded directly from all of our pockets.

The Covid-19 pandemic response from Derbyshire councils will have cost far beyond £65.5 million by the end of June.

This includes the cost of fighting the pandemic as well as lost income due to social-distancing restrictions.

Of this, £50 million is through the county, £8.5 million through the city and £7 million from the districts and boroughs, using their available monthly and total figures.

Only the county council, city council and four district and borough councils supplied figures when asked, so the £65.5 million estimate is likely to be far higher.

Not all councils gave the total cost impact to their authority.

Derbyshire County Council's budget for this year is £560.2 million and it is due to make £19 million in cuts over the current financial year.

The £50 million the Covid-19 pandemic is set to cost the authority around 10 per cent of its entire annual budget.

Derby City Council's budget for this year is £240 million.

It says it is expecting to spend an extra £4 million in responding to the pandemic and a drop in income of £4.5 million, both by the end of June.

Our district and borough councils have budgets of around £50 million a year.

District and borough councils rely on car parking charges for much of their income but with most people confined to their homes due to the pandemic this vital funding has all but disappeared.

This leaves them in an increasingly precarious financial position.

Derbyshire councils have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that on average each of them is facing around £300,000 a month in lost income.

Those responsible for more services, Derbyshire County Council and Derby City Council, are facing a far larger cost through coordinating the virus response and lost council tax and business rates.