Star comment: Just how bad must it all get?

The latest update from the financial front at Shropshire Council points to a dire predicament with no cavalry on the horizon.

The authority is being kept relatively financially stable by raids on its piggy bank. But the report from the chief finance officer James Walton makes it clear that things cannot go on as they are and includes a warning that will send a cold shiver of concern up the spines of Salopians – the current cost of adult social care, and other services the council has a legal duty to provide, are not affordable.

Think about that for a moment. The council, which has already pulled in its horns significantly, cannot afford to do the things that it is supposed to do.

It sounds like a kind of functional bankruptcy and it makes you wonder just how bad things have to get before there is a major and obvious financial collapse.

There is a £36 million black hole and councillors are being told that the council needs to find an extra £12m of savings on top of the £24m it already is seeking to find.

As to that central question of how long this state of affairs can go on, there is a big clue in the report. Piggy bank raiding can be used to balance the budget this financial year.

However, the way things are shaping up is that next year the gap can no longer be completely bridged.

Shropshire Council is by no means alone among councils up and down the land in being in this predicament. There have already been a number of painful and controversial measures and still the problems persist. The options for financial shuffling of this and that to tide things over seem to be rapidly diminishing.

There is the prospect of the council doing a lot less, and in key areas of service delivery failing to meet its legal obligations.

In the past there have been high profile campaigns calling for a fair deal for Shropshire. The feeling that the county is not getting enough money from the government is a longstanding grievance.

If the decline is becoming so profound that there is no prospect of it being reversed, the big question is whether the government is going to stand idly by, or whether it will stump up more cash to keep Shropshire Council limping along.

At the moment that looks to be a forlorn hope. If and when things deteriorate, it will become a fervent prayer.