The pressure on local government finances has been highlighted with North Yorkshire Council saying it will need to use £82m of it's reserves in the next three years.
The council's executive has approved a draft financial plan for the coming years.
Deputy leader - Councillor Gareth Dadd - says the plan has identified £46m of savings but still leaves the council short.
The authority is set to use £83m of its reserves over the next three years as a new financial plan shows the authorities costs continue to outstrip it's income.
Corporate Director for Strategic Resources - Gary Fielding - says the new financial plan has identified £46m of savings with much of that as a result of last year's local government reorganisation.
Gary Fielding told members of the council's Executive that a large amount of the savings identified result from efficiencies result from the merging of the counties district, borough and county councils and wont impact on services.
The Executive heard that there are continuing pressures on many areas of it's spending with the Director for Strategic Resources highlighting some of the big budget areas.
North Yorkshire residents are facing an average increase of almost £90 in their annual council tax payment to the unitary authority from April, despite plans to raid the council’s reserves and use £46m of savings.
The report states despite the additional funding, the proposed budget still relies upon reserves to ensure a balanced position and that funding of £76m is forecast to be required to balance the council’s books over the next three years.
The report states:
“With a recurring deficit of £47.7m by 2026/27, without corrective action, this reserve would be fully depleted in less than a further two years.”
Leader of the council’s Labour group, Councillor Steve Shaw Wright, branded the revised budget proposal as “a missed opportunity”.
He said:
“This was a chance to put extra funding into areas that really investment, such as special needs education, education and adult social care instead of saying we don’t have to cut as much.
“I can understand you want a balanced budget, but we are not doing our best by failing the people who need the services.
“They are spending £21m on transporting children with special needs in and around and outside the county when we should be providing places at local schools.”
However, Councillor Dadd said the funding was being used to reduce the amount of the council’s dwindling reserves needed to balance the books.
He said while any money was welcome it did not alter the fact the authority had a significant deficit to contend with over the medium term.
Councillor Dadd said the Labour group’s criticisms were misguided as the authority had proposed a budget to protect services to vulnerable people.
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