Devon taxpayers will face a bill of nearly £274,000 to keep the county’s fifteen redundant residential care homes empty, the county’s Lib Dems have discovered.

New figures unearthed by the Lib Dems show £181,000 will be spent in the new financial year to keep empty care homes ticking over, paying business rates, water, gas and electric bills as well as for site security.

And that’s on top of £7,100 already spent on fitting security alarms, another £18,700 bill for security patrols, on-site presence and checks and a further £67,000 spent by the end of next month (March) on grounds maintenance, refuse collections, hire of skips etc.

More could also have to be paid out when the local district councils send in their bills for this year’s Business Rates on the now empty homes.

The total bill run-up by the ruling Conservatives at Devon County Council to mothball empty residential care homes will be £273,800 by March 2016, said Cllr Alan Connett, Leader of the Lib Dem opposition at County Hall.

He discovered the costs of keeping the empty homes ticking over as part of the Lib Dems research into the budget put forward by the ruling Conservatives.

“It truly beggars belief doesn’t it? The county council plans to spend nearly three times the amount on keeping the care homes empty than it will save by scrapping school crossing patrols.

“The facts are these. Conservative ‘tough choices’ at County Hall mean they plan to spend nearly £274,000 by April next year on the empty care homes but will cut £100,000 from the school lollipop patrol service.

“Their priorities beggar belief – not so much ‘tough choices’ as soft targets!

“I suspect they don’t really know what they are going to do with the empty care homes and they are hopelessly slow when disposing of unwanted assets.

“For example, the council has unwanted buildings and offices which it says are surplus and valued in excess of £42 million but they managed to bring in £4 million in 2013-14 from sales of assets and have only picked up their step since, because the Lib Dems have been highlighting the waste and lack of a good business approach at County Hall,” added Cllr Connett.

Hard to believe? The information comes from questions from Cllr Connett and the responses from Devon County Council. See for yourself, straight from the horse´s mouth…..

Q1. Cost of the closing-up/securing the now closed residential care homes of the elderly?
£7,100 for fitting security alarms

Q2. Cost of any security patrols/checks/on site presence for the closed properties?
Total costs for the 8 residential homes closed to date in 2015/15 are estimated at £18,700.

Q3. Cost of closing-up/securing the now closed residential Children’s Homes?
£3,700

Q4. Cost of any security patrols/checks/on site presence for the closed properties?
£0

Q5. Costs of maintenance, utilities, NNDR for the residential care homes (elderly and children’s) since closure until end of the 14-15 financial year?
Children’s £24,300
The expenditure for the 8 older peoples residential homes closed to date will be approximately £67,000 in 2014/15. This is the total for all non-security premises costs and includes grounds maintenance, refuse collection/hire of skips. Note for NNDR, invoices have not been received from District Councils and have not been included within the above.

Q6. Costs of maintenance, utilities, NNDR for the residential care homes (elderly and children’s) budgeted for 2015-16?
Children’s £0
The total premises budget including security costs for the 15 residential care homes included in Phase 1 to 3 is £181,000, for the 8 homes closed to date the budget for 2015/16 is £102,000.

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