Kirklees Council is having to borrow millions to pay for repairs and upgrades to public buildings.
The cash-strapped council will take out a £2.3m loan for work on a plethora of premises and facilities over the next 12 months.
But it will spend less than half, just £1.05m, on repairs and revamps as £1m of the cash is to pay for new cremators at Huddersfield and Dewsbury crematoria.
Taxpayers will be hit to the tune of £30,000 in interest per year for 20 years to pay for the loan, unless it is paid off early.
A list of the buildings being fixed over the coming 12 months has been kept secret by the council for reasons of commercial confidentiality.
The council’s premises include, offices, libraries, children’s centres, town halls, sports centres, museums, cemeteries and parks.
An official report admits the repair work bill should be far higher.
It says: “The current backlog of works required, significantly exceeds the amount of funding available and therefore works are considered on a priority basis.”
After cabinet members approved the loan spend plan, Clr Cathy Scott, said she welcomed the move.
She said: “It’s nice to see this Kirklees Labour administration is investing in buildings, trying to make the best out of a bad situation.”
Kirklees Council has struggled to keep on top of maintenance amid £197m cuts to its budget over the past decade.
The cost of some repairs is now so large that it has refused to fix them, saying they are unaffordable, including the reported £4.2m worth of problems at Tolson Museum and more than £600,000 at Mirfield Council Offices, which were only used by the Town Council.
A strategy of disposing of assets is well underway – most notably Red House Museum at Gomersal, Mirfield Town Council offices and the Crown Court Buildings in Huddersfield town centre.
The long term future of the historic Tolson building at Moldgreen is not yet known.
A list of projects for the past year shows a number of public buildings and facilities benefited from five and six-figure cash injections.
The largest outlay was on Slaithwaite Town Hall, which has had £400,000 approved for new windows.
A new roof at Batley Baths has cost £148,000 while Batley Town Hall had £109,000 spent on its central heating.
Repairs and new toilets at council offices, Civic Centre 1, have cost in excess of £150,000.
Work to revamp the fountain at Greenhead Park came with a bill of £15,000.
A number of projects were postponed, including: a new boiler for Mirfield library, a bore hole scheme at the Media Centre and work on the heating at Slaithwaite Town Hall.
