COUNCIL FINANCES
Cash-strapped councils around the country face a £1.5bn shortfall in funding needed just to keep afloat, with 30 councils requiring government "bailouts".

ENFIELD
Tottenham Hotspur FC, which got a great deal over a lease for its planned women's football academy, had doled out freebies to a number of councillors.

EAST SUSSEX
Local authority faffing has led to the cost of repairs to a bridge rising from an initial estimate of £2m to £21m – and after several years little has been done.

ESSEX
A paedophile was left working around children for a year thanks to a safeguarding failure by the county council.

SOMERSET
After appointing a director of human resources without a competitive recruitment process, the council faces questions over the salary awarded.

PENDLE
A councillor has stood down after being exposed as owing nearly £4,000 in council tax – and he was already in arrears when selected by the Tories.

LONDON
The University of East London has awarded Sadiq Khan an honorary doctorate – having already shown great generosity to the mayor's wife.


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