£10,000 bill for weather was not in budget

Freezing temperatures and snowfall in the last few weeks has cost Welshpool Town Council up to £10,000 it had not budgeted for, it has been revealed.

Councillors say that the bad weather over the last five weeks has resulted in the council having to fork out between £8,000 and £10,000.

Robert Robinson, town clerk, said it was added expense that the council had not seen coming and had not budgeted for.

He said: "Our heating bills are a lot more than we intended and heating the town hall over the last five weeks has cost us several thousand pounds extra.

"There has been a decline in visitors to the tourist information centre, the Armoury recreation centre has hardly been used because people have struggled to get there, pre-planned events at the town hall and Corn Exchange have also been cancelled and we have had to cope with the loss of income from them.

"We also must cope with the loss of income because of the lack of games taking place on our sports fields.

"On top of that interest rates have fallen and the council's investments are not getting what they once were."

Mr Robinson said the extra cost was something the council could not have foreseen.

"There's not much we could have done about it and I'm sure the council is not alone in this," he said.

"We could have more bad weather in the next few months so it could end up costing the council a lot more."

The council will be discussing the additional expense at its next full town council meeting.

It meets on Wednesday at 7pm at the town hall.