BRENTWOOD Borough Council has failed to collect as much as £100,000 revenue – after failing to invoice the companies which rent its town centre billboards for at least eight years.
The blunder relates to four hoardings located in the William Hunter Way car park, Chatham Way car park, Ongar Road and Ongar Place – three of which the authority "believes" it has let to the private sector.
The council refused to answer the Gazette's questions about how much money it had failed to collect, although it is thought to be as high as £100,000.
The revelation comes as the asset, infrastructure and localism panel devises a so-called billboard strategy to "make the best use of this source of revenue".
When asked about the faux pas, panel chairman Councillor Russell Quirk said: "Part of my new remit is to ascertain and evaluate the council's assets across the borough.
"In doing so, I have discovered that income due from billboards on land owned by the council has not been collected as it should have been and that this error goes back eight years or more.
"It does beg the question as to how Brentwood's previous chief executives might justify such an oversight.
"It is all very well announcing plans to modernise and to reorganise the workings of local authorities, yet if you are unable to organise the regular invoicing and collection of existing sums owed to the taxpayer – and as such a significant sum is involved here – then it should make us further wonder how these senior, six-figure salaries can really be defended."
The Gazette asked the council how much money it had received from the four billboards since April 2001 to date.
In reply, the council issued a statement, which read: "The asset, infrastructure and localism panel was established in February to ensure firm oversight of the assets (such as land and buildings) that the council owns, as well as our contracts, equipment and services.
"The panel has been successful in identifying surplus assets for disposal but also in investigating council functions to ensure that the strictest controls are either already in place or that they are quickly implemented.
"As part of this investigatory role, in September the panel discussed a report about billboards that are either situated on council-owned land or attached to council-owned property.
"Members decided that it was necessary to devise a billboard strategy to make the best use of this source of revenue for the council.
"The council will be reviewing its legal arrangements with a view to increasing its income from sites already under contract as well as to identify any further appropriate sites for the future.
"Since that decision, we are in the process of clarifying current arrangements and seeking to recover income due in relation to use of the current sites."
When pressed to answer the question about how much money the council had received, a spokesman simply said: "We don't have anything further to add to our previous statement."
