Storm damage expected to cost £1.5m

The true will cost be known in the next financial year, as the information is still being collected by the finance department.

At a meeting, the authority's finance panel were told by head of finance, Jane Thomas, that the end of year position for the 2019/20 budget had looked rosy at the end of February.

But, this is before the financial implications of the flooding and now the coronavirus crisis are fully known.

For any claims for financial support that PCC submits to the Welsh Government on flooding, the council will have to pay the first £517,909.

Ms Thomas, said: “At the end of February we were forecasting at that point an end of year underspend position of over £500,000.

“It could improve further as there are cost reductions we anticipated being delivered.

“But there are a couple of things that will significantly impact on that.

“We’re still collecting data on the storms to submit a claim to the Welsh Government for the initial response cost.

“The situation on Covid-19 is going to impact on the council.”

She told the meeting that in terms of the 2019/20 financial year she expected that it would have “limited impact.”

However she didn’t know how it would affect the 2020/21 budget.

Ms Thomas said: “The estimate from the February storms was £1.5million, we have some work to do with heads of service on the claims and it will be based on the costs that we did actually incur.”

The Outturn report from February 29, showed that PCC were heading for an £583,000 underspend on March 31.

This compares with a prediction of just £6,000 underspend at the end of January.

The February 29 report had predicted the situation would improve by a further £900,000 with more savings materialising.

But PCC could now see an overspend position for 2019/20 returned and the council might need to use it’s reserves to fill the gap.

Following the discussion at the Finance Panel – the report was supposed to go to cabinet for discussion.

As the cabinet meeting set for March 24 was cancelled, decisions on agenda items have been taken by Council Leader, Cllr Rosemarie Harris using delegated powers.

She has noted the report’s contents.