Council reports £500,000 overspend on fuel and utility costs
The council's fuel and utility costs have exceeded budget by £500,000, with the overspend attributed to rising energy prices and increased usage.
A MEMBER of Derry City and Strabane District Council has warned that an over-£500,000 fuel and utility costs overspend by council is a direct consequence of the US/Israel-Iran war and what he claimed was fuel company "price gouging".
During November’s Governance and Strategic Planning Committee, Lead Finance Officer, Alfie Dallas, informed members that council’s leisure, building control, and visitor service received surplus income in the first half of the financial year, from April to September.
However, Mr Dallas noted that council had overspent by £17,000 as waste contracts had gone over budget by £530,000, £200,000 of which was due to fuel surcharges being applied by waste contractors and £330,000 due to a significant increase in waste volumes.
Additionally, utility costs such as electricity, gas, oil, and vehicle fuel are also over budget by £361,000 due to "ongoing global volatility".
This arises mainly from council’s leisure facilities (£130,000) and fleet fuel costs (£197,000).
People Before Profit representative, Shaun Harkin, said the extra costs to council were "really frustrating" and "tied directly" to two factors.
“One is Trump and Israel’s war in Iran and the war in Gaza, and then the price gouging that’s going on by big, multinational oil and gas companies, who are just robbing people blind. Our residents are paying the price for that,” he said.
“This should not be a cost on the council, and there’s just no way around it because that we’re being told by the suppliers that this is the price.”
SDLP councillor, Sean Mooney, agreed that the added expenditure was "alarming."
“Councillor Harkin has outlined his position, but we’re stuck with that,” he concluded. “We can’t do anything about it. We have to just try and wade ourselves through as best we can.”