MEMBERS of the Finance Panel have expressed concerns that Powys County Council’s (PCC) has the lowest savings delivery across Wales.

The Finance Panel (FP), which includes opposition group leaders and scrutiny committee chairmen, met on March 20 to discuss the Financial Overview and Forecast which will be discussed at Cabinet on Tuesday, March 26.

The observations also say that financial training for council managers should be obligatory.

The observations will be addressed by finance portfolio holder Cllr Aled Davies (Conservative – Llanrhaedr-ym-Mochnant/Llansilin)  as the financial position at the end of February will be reported to cabinet.

The FP report said: “Savings plans must be sufficiently robust in order to be achieved – Powys has the lowest level of savings delivery across Wales which is a cause of concern.

“Financial training has been provided for heads of service and appropriate managers, however attendance has been questionable.

“The Panel wish to recommend that this training becomes mandatory and that consideration should be given to including portfolio holders within that training.”

The report states that the council overspend for 2018/19 is now projected to be £2.464 million and it stood at £2.737 million in January.

But this is following assurances from service directors that savings will be made.

Out of the deficit of £12.296 million which needed to be tackled by the end of March, £6.142 million has been achieved, which is around half the total, with £6.154 million needing to be found.

The biggest risk, Children’s Services remains with a projection of a £5.683 million overspend.

The  report also shows that the Highways Trasport and Recycling (HTR) service is forecast to be £1.618 million over budget.

This is due to a number of reasons:

  • Trade waste collection income is down by £160,000
  • Increasing fuel costs has seen an overspend on domestic waste of £510,000
  • The forecast overspend on public transport has gone up by £570,000

The report also shows that a forecast of £400,000 underspend is anticipated on waste contracts.

This is due to increased income from selling recyclable material and lower then expected spend on landfill tax.

Head of finance, Jane Thomas, said: “The projected position continues to report a deficit out turn, however the level of the deficit has reduced.

“The council needs to continue to reduce the projected deficit, the requirement to further control discretionary expenditure until the end of the financial year will limit the impact in the general fund reserve.”