A bombshell report from council officers on Tuesday said the Lib Dem-run Mole Valley District Council is facing bankruptcy.
Unless the administration can make significant savings, the council will run out of money in the 2026/27 financial year. This would mean that the Lib Dem administration would have to declare a Section 114 notice, which effectively declares the council bankrupt.
This will mean that all new spending must stop and services such as leisure centres, playgrounds, grants to community organisations such as Citizens Advice Bureau and planning enforcement would be at risk of being stopped. This is because the council would be barred from spending on certain services.
And this is in the context of the Audit Committee of the council having its effectiveness hollowed out, which means that the Lib Dem administration is much less accountable to residents.
We warned last month that the Lib Dem-run council's finances were built on sand, as a result of £1million overrun in the budget, which is 10% of the overall spending, so this latest development is most concerning.
So how can this be stopped? The Lib Dem administration needs to find an additional £1.2million of savings in order to avoid bankruptcy. They can do this by, perhaps, not going ahead with putting solar panels on Leatherhead Leisure Centre, delaying the ruinous net zero target of 2030 to 2050 and putting the expensive and ill-thought out Dorking and Bookham Masterplans on hold.
We believe the Liberal Democrats have been too extravagant on vanity projects to boost the image of their councillors and now there is a risk Mole Valley residents will suffer as a result. We urge the Liberal Democrats to get a grip on this crisis and reverse the changes they made to the Audit Committee's effectiveness so they can be accountable for their actions at this time.
Cllr Joanna Slater, Leader of Mole Valley Conservatives says "The accounting tricks used to present a balanced budget for 2024/25 haven't worked, and the council now faces difficult decisions. The Liberal Democrats need to work cross party to improve scrutiny, and they need to give up on vanity projects that waste precious taxpayer funds."
Marisa Heath, Parliamentary Spokesperson for Dorking & Horley says "The Lib Dem-run council has not delivered any of its promises to residents. What it has delivered is a weak local plan building all over the Green Belt, increased parking fees, an unusable electric parking contract, very few affordable homes and a council heading towards bankruptcy. Mole Valley has been badly let down and deserves much better."
