Letter: GBC’s Audit Report Is No Surprise

Published on: 26 Feb, 2025
Updated on: 26 Feb, 2025

From John Murray

secretary of the Town Centre Branch of the Guildford Conservative Association

In response to: ‘Significant Weaknesses’ Found in Guildford’s Financial Management

As someone who has struggled without success for some time to make sense of GBC’s accounts, I was not at all surprised to see that Grant Thornton could not make head nor tail of them either.

There is now no doubt that the Liberal Democrat leadership has completely lost control and oversight into the finances, housing and probably most other matters since they were elected in 2019. They have had to spend the last year sorting out their own mess, and it will no doubt take years to respond to the auditor’s queries.

We hear lots of trumpeting about what they want to achieve. All seem able to expound at length on subjects such as planning, parking, traffic flow, civic amenities etc. But when it comes to basic financial matters that are essential to running the council they go suddenly quiet.

What the Lib Dem councillors lack is the ability to challenge officers and hold them to account. If they won’t then let’s get some new leaders who will.