Labour leader raises doubts over Shropshire Council finances

It was revealed earlier this week that there is a potential overspend of £6.9 million on the authority's gross budget of £561.95m this financial year.

Councillor David Minnery, portfolio holder for finance, presented his annual finance report to full council on Thursday.

He said: "The base budget has turned out to be inaccurate and we need to look at the way we do things and adjust our budgets accordingly."

Council Leader Peter Nutting welcomed the review.

He added: "I'm very keen we keep looking at the base budget as we need to keep refreshing and reviewing what we do, as we can save millions if we get it right and it can cost millions if we get it wrong."

Councillor Roger Evans, Lib Dem leader for Shropshire Council, said: "Even those who can't afford to put food on their table are having to pay 20 per cent of their council tax, is this a caring council?"

Councillor Alan Mosley, Labour leader for Shropshire Council, said it would be "potentially disastrous" if the predictions come to fruition.

He added: "There was a predicted overspend of almost £7 million, and we heard that the projected general fund balance for March 2019 is £8.5m, which is significantly below the recommended level.

"Some might say the portfolio holder is seeing flying pigs as everything tells us we are in difficulty.

"We can see why the people of Shropshire are disillusioned with this council."

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Councillor Mosley added: "We've bought shopping centres that we don't own, has anyone seen a business plan about these shopping centres, has anyone seen rigorously evaluated figures about this?

"We were going to be discussing Shirehall, but that has been withdrawn, and contractors have increased the costs massively.

"We've heard that parts of the IT strategy are well behind schedule and we are dependent on it for a lot of returns for our future budget.

"We've seen for ourselves that the IT system has collapsed overnight, what money has been saved from the IT strategy?

"We are going to turn up the volume on these doubts on the capability of the people running this council as it's not running as it should."

Conservative Councillor Malcolm Pate responded to the claims by calling for the Labour councillors to form their own alternative financial proposals.

Councillor Minnery replied saying that a lot of the overspend was due to unforeseen pressures on children's services.

He said: "I've heard a lot of hyperbole. Last year wasn't the kindest, we took a little bit of money out of highways and we got potholes everywhere."