Conservative North Herts Council has agreed that it will increase spending by £115,000 to allow operation of the markets to be contracted out. Councillors were told that this is the markets share of the council’s overheads and if the extra budget was not agreed the council would have to carry on running the markets itself.

Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Jarvis said, “This shows how little grip the Conservatives have on the council’s finances. Everybody agrees that the markets should be taken over by somebody who can make a better job of running them, but to say it will cost £115,000 this year for the Council not to run the markets is crazy. If the council is doing less it should be cutting overheads, not just transferring the spending to another budget.”

“What’s worse is that next year they plan to spend £125,000 not running the markets. No wonder

 The increased spending is equivalent to a council tax increase of 1.2%.