THE dark financial clouds surrounding Powys County Council (PCC) lifted slightly in the last month of the 2018/19 financial year.

During March, the situation improved slightly with Powys County Council (PCC), ending up recording an overspend of £713,000 from a total budget of £247 million.

It had been predicted at the end of February that the overspend would be nearly £2.5 million.

But while delighted with this, Finance portfolio holder, Cllr Aled Davies (Conservative – Llanrhaedr-ym-Mochnant/Llansilin), pointed out that it was still an overspend.

To come up with the end of year total, £7 million had to be poured into the budget from the general reserves fund, leaving it at just over £9 million.

But significantly the council only delivered savings or cuts of £6.5 million, which is only 58 per cent of the target, of £12.296 million .

Finance portfolio holder, Cllr Aled Davies (Conservative – Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant/Llansilin) read out the end of year financial report at the last cabinet meeting on Tuesday, June 18.

Cllr Davies, said: “The last period of the year saw a significant improvement in the overall level of over expenditure.

“The savings delivered during the year are £6.5million, 58 per cent of the target.

“The 18/19 budget saw the use of £7 million of reserves to balance the budget to support the investment needed in Children’s and Adults’ services.

“The difference between the end of February and March saw a shift of £1.7 million around social services, schools and leisure services.”

This was due to the over forecasting of spending as well as grant funding arriving.

Cllr Davies added that the two main areas of concern have been  Children’s Services where there has been an overspend of £5.6 million.

And also Highways Transport and Recycling (HTR) where the overspend was over £900,000.

Also undelivered savings of almost £2.3 million in Children’s Services were written off.

Cllr Davies added: “We took the view very early on in the financial year that it was undeliverable and there has been issues particularly around agency staff, with over £500,000 spent on that.

“In HTR the undelivered savings was £990, 000 however these need to be delivered this year.

“There is good news contained in this end of year, the overspend was not so big but saying that it’s still an overspend.”

Cllr Davies finished his report by adding that the council still faced “significant challenges” this year, and that the general reserve needed to be protected.

Head of finance, Jane Thomas, added: “The action cabinet and the rest of the council took back in the autumn when we were projecting issues particularly around Children’s Services have lead to the improvement in our position.”

The contents of the report were noted by the cabinet.