I’ve spent the last twenty minutes or so talking to the Leader and Deputy Leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council in the midst of a financial crisis which could well leave the authority with a fifty million pound deficit and a planned budget blown out of the water.
I make no excuses for letting this interview, with Cllr Dine Romero and Cllr Richard Samuel, run in its entirety.
We’ve talked about trying to keep essential services operating, assisting businesses and preparing for a different future where the authority may have to look to other streams of income – rather relying on tourism which may take years to recover.
Under the current restrictions, the authority has had to close the Roman Baths. That alone will lose them around six million pounds worth of income over the next few months.
So with the revenue from heritage services now non-existent and income from business rates reduced l wanted to know how desperate things were getting.
