Councillors told to spend less

Councillors in Powys have been told to tighten their purse strings amid fears front-line services across the county could face cuts over the next year.

At a meeting of Powys County Council's board yesterday, members were told all departments would need to keep within spending budgets or else cuts would have to be made.

Councillor Gwilym Vaughan, board member for finance, said the council was facing tough times ahead.

"This is going to be a very difficult 12 months for the council and we need to be doing all we can to reduce our spending," he said.

"The current economic climate is not good and we're in for an extremely tough time. This is why I want to urge all departments to keep within their budgets and make sure they don't overspend because we just haven't got any left over money."

He said the council would be unable to rely on any reserves. He said: "If any department does happen to overspend, or is placed in the position where it has no choice too, then they will need to come before the board and we will have to then find the money from another department,"

"We just haven't got any money spare so whichever way we look at it things are inevitably going to suffer."

Front-line services across Powys are already facing cuts in the next financial year because of an "extremely disappointing" budget settlement from the Welsh Assembly.

The council will get a 1.5 per cent increase in Welsh Assembly Government funding – below the average across Wales of 2.9 per cent and below the current rate of inflation of 3.1 per cent.