news – Page 31 – thecumbriachronic.co.uk

CRUMBRIA: 23/02/2026

THREE years after its grand unveiling, Crumberland Council is still struggling to work out the abacus.

Five weeks from its third birthday, the Council this week finally signs off its long-overdue accounts for its FIRST YEAR of existence.

The Labour-daft authority launched on April Fool’s Day 2023, following the great Local Government Disorganisation here that swept away Cumbria County Council and the various district councils.

Value-for-money was pledged, and new heights of super-dooper Council efficiency were strongly implied.

Three years down the road, repeated delays with auditing at Crumberland Council tell a wholly different story.

The accounts we’re talking about concern the financial year 2023/24 – Year One of the new authority.

The Council was given until February 2025 to publish its unaudited version to allow outside auditors to do a deep dive.

Crumberland, serving North & West Kumbria, missed that LEGAL deadline by a mere EIGHT months, finally publishing last October.

As a result, the Council is once again not complying with the law and has created another headache for external auditors Grant Thornton UK.

The firm, which is paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by the Council, and regularly now babysits the Labour-dominated Audit & Risk Committee, has confirmed that they were UNABLE to complete a full and proper audit.

In other words, they cannot say whether the Council’s accounts present a “true and fair view” of what’s gone in and out.

In auditing terms, this is known as a “qualified opinion”. In public confidence terms, it’s a PR disaster given the amount of public money the Council winkles out of residents every year.

All that being said, auditing delays at Councils are a fact of town hall life nationally. Qualified staff are hard to recruit, public sector auditing is increasingly complex, and Crumberland inherited a dog’s breakfast of accounts from its predecessor authorities.

The mirth doesn’t stop there.

The Council’s draft accounts for Year Two (2024/25) are legally required to be published this coming Friday.

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