CARRICKFERGUS Borough Council has outstanding loans totalling £13.8 million, new figures reveal.
A report by the local government auditor on council finances across Northern Ireland shows Carrick is the 14th most indebted of the province’s 26 local authorities.
The Borough comes higher up the list when debt is calculated per head of populatio
n - at £351 per resident, Carrick ranks fifth highest.
Major recent projects for which money has been borrowed include the refurbishment of the Town Hall and the Amphitheatre leisure centre.
Ballymena Borough Council, which is to merge with Carrickfergus in 2011 under the Review of Public Administration, is the most indebted authority, with loans to the value of £30 million, and the second most indebted per citizen, at £499.
At the opposite end of the scale, Magherafelt District Council has no outstanding loans.
Larne, the third council area to be absorbed by the new Mid and East Antrim District in 2011, has the sixth lowest debt, at £6.2 million, and the eighth lowest per head, at £200.
The auditor’s report also shows that the council needed to raise £8.6 million from the district rate during 2008-09, the eighth lowest figure, while the level of reserves in the council’s district fund were the ninth lowest, at £1.3 million. A further £300,000 is held in a capital, renewal and repair fund.
Belfast, the largest council, had both the highest rates income, £116.7 million, and the greatest reserves, £10.4 million; Moyle had the lowest expenditure, £5 million, and Magherafelt had the lowest reserves, £200,000.
