A Dale county councillor has come under scrutiny for underspending her neighbourhood budget.
During their four-year term in office, county councillors have a capital budget of £14,000 to award to community projects and a revenue budget of £5,400 for groups.
However, Lower Teesdale representative Cllr Jasmine Fox has not given out any of her capital budget and only £245 of her revenue budget has been awarded.
A further £147 of the revenue budget has been allocated to a pending project.
The issue was raised during Staindrop Parish Council’s April meeting when Cllr Ed Chicken suggested she be approached for cash towards getting a pedestrian crossing for the village.
He added: “I haven’t seen her since the last carnival where she happily wandered around and promised me that she would do everything she could to get a crossing. [She] has not spent a penny of her annual allocation from last year, that could be rolled over to pay for this.”
Figures produced by Durham County Council show that Evenwood representative Cllr Robert Potts has given out more of his allocation than any other dale county councillor.
A total of £12,000 of his capital budget has been spent, leaving only £2,000 to be awarded, and more than half of his revenue allocation, £2,738, has been spent.
Cllr Jillian Campbell has spent £8,280 of her capital budget in her Lower Teesdale ward, and £2,900 of her revenue allocation has been spent. A further £2,300 has been earmarked for a planned project, leaving only £200 in her revenue pot.
Upper Teesdale representative Cllr Richard Bell has given out £1,400 of his capital allowance and £2,601 of his revenue pot. Another £2,195 is pending for future projects, leaving £604 in his revenue budget.
Cllr Chris Foote-Wood, of the Barnard Castle ward, has spent £1,100 of his capital budget, with another £5,000 pending.
He has given out £2,268 of his revenue funding, and £2,700 is pending, leaving only £432 to be spent.
Cllr Fox was asked for comment but none had been received at the time of going to print
