Limits to section 114 powers
Last week Joe Ejiofor wrote to all Labour Party members concerning the cuts_… the result of having to close a £20m budget gap, means that we will either have to charge more, or do less, or do both of the above. We are not going to set a deficit budget, nor are we going to dig so deep into our reserves that our section 151 Officer (the Borough Treasurer) issues us with a Section 114 notice (re: misuse of reserves and expectation of financial default). He has explained his line of argument in meetings, saying that the section 114 notice would to unelected officers taking over the running of the council from the elected councillors. But the 151 officer (the interim CFO) is a council employee. And his powers are far more limited than Joe Ejiofor suggests. The limitations of the powers of the 151 officer are described in the blog post http://www.room151.co.uk/blogs/agent151-anyone-for-a-section-114/ Here the 151 officer and CFO states: For the uninitiated, the sectio