THE cost of heating Craven Leisure pool in Skipton and employing agency staff means Craven District Council will go out with an deficit of almost £544,000. Council chair Simon Myers told a meeting of Gargrave Parish Council it was a shame that having managed to balance the books for so many years, the council would end its life at the end of this month following local government reorganisation with a budget deficit.

|He said: "For the first time since I started on Craven Council (in May, 2011) we have a budget deficit, and in the last year of the council; all through austerity, we have balanced the books.

"Half of it is Craven Leisure for the heating of the pool. And what is more irritating is that we have fitted solar panels but we can't get the grid to connect it. There has been all this commitment to green energy, and its maddening."

Last month, it was revealed that the 500 solar panels fitted to the roof of Craven Leisure in November, 2021 as part of a £1.2m project to reduce carbon emissions at the council’s own buildings, had still not been turned on.

At the time, the council said it was still awaiting confirmation from energy distributor Northern Powergrid before they could be used. At the last policy committee meeting of the council on February 28, chief executive Paul Shevlin confirmed that was still the case.

Cllr Myers told the meeting of Gargrave Parish Council that the deficit was also down to the authority having to employ agency staff to 'fill the gaps in the offices'.

The council along with district and Borough councils across the county struggled to employ planning officers in particular, but with a duty to process planning applications it needed to employ agency workers, he said.

A revenue budget monitoring report to Craven's policy committee meeting on February 28 stated that there was a forecasted 'overspend of £544,000 for the full financial year'.

The report of the chief finance officer stated: "This figure reflects the fact that the council is operating in very uncertain times - the increased expenditure on energy bills that adds pressure onto service expenditure across the council, as well as the potential impact of the current cost of living expenditure and how that might impact on revenue streams, and the council also needs to continue to monitor the resource implications re local government reorganisation in North Yorkshire."