The impact of coronavirus on Powys Council's finances is not as bad as had been expected, councillors have heard.

The authority's head of finance Jane Thomas told members of its finance panel on Thrusday that the position at the end of June was going to be better than had been predicted.

The council had feared a £6.4 million loss of income because of the lockdown to control the pandemic.

Ms Thomas added: “In terms of our initial projection we haven’t seen as much loss as was anticipated.

“We are updating that now for what’s actually happened and that will inform the decision making on that pot of money.”

Some of the costs are also expected to be covered by the Welsh Government, and Ms Thomas told members: “In terms of additional costs the Covid19 hardship fund was set up by the Welsh Government very early on in the crisis.

“We’re already drawing on that and it’s for costs over and above that would be incurred normally."

Ms Thomas added that discussions through the WLGA (Welsh Local Government Association) and the Welsh Government were taking place around the impact on local authorities of loss of income.

But, she said it would be unclear how much support could be expected until all 22 Welsh local authorities had worked out how much income they are losing due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, by the end of the 2019/20 financial year Powys Council had received £26,625 of the £549,233 it had spent dealing with the flooding from the February storms.

Ms Thomas pointed out the threshold that PCC have to exceed before making claims, and that the fund does not cover building costs.

Ms Thomas said: “The flooding costs should be covered to an 85 per cent restriction. We’re still claiming for the flood costs that have come through since then as well.”