Owl understands the need to watch the pennies.

Job security for Conservative MPs is not looking good.

In his last week’s media column under the title: ‘It’s been a difficult day for the conservatives’ Simon Jupp said of the local election result:

“It’s going to [be] an interesting time, I just want to make sure that our council is value for money. I pay my council tax to East Devon and I want to make sure every penny that I give to the council is spent wisely, so as one of the MPs, I’ll be scrutinising every penny.” 

Well Simon, you may pay your council tax to EDDC but they aren’t the big spenders.

For every pound you pay in your council tax, 73p are spent by Phil Twiss, cabinet member for finance, and the conservative controlled Devon County Council (DCC). 

DCC raised what they take from you by 5% this year but they are still teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Next up, 12 of your pennies are spent by the Crime and Police Commissioner, Alison Hernandez. She hiked her budget this year by a whopping 6% to help pay for the 20,000 “Boris Bobbies” Johnson vowed in 2019 would  reverse Tory police cuts.

The jury is out on this one, police numbers are still not keeping up with local population growth.

Only 7 of your pennies are spent by EDDC.

The coalition of last year was the only Devon council to balance its books without digging deep into reserves. It managed to do so by a serious overhaul of the budget, raising its part of your council tax by only 3%.

[4p in every pound goes to provide fire and rescue and another 4p to provide Town and Parish council amenities].

By all means scrutinise expenditure but do please keep a sense of proportion.