Liberal Democrats slam Conservative budget incompetence

12.27.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 15th Apr 2008

Cheltenham Borough Council has just discovered nearly two million pounds that it didn't realise it had - but it's too late now to reverse the cuts to services that the Conservative Cabinet have made to save money.

The council's budget monitoring report, published this week, shows that the council spent £1.9m less in the year ending April 2008 than it planned to. Red faced officials have asked permission to spend £700,000 of this money next year instead, while most of the rest will be siphoned off into the council's reserve accounts.

Cllr. Paul Massey, Liberal Democrat finance spokesman, said "It beggars belief. In February, the Conservatives rammed through cuts to Cheltenham's advice services and young people's services, because of a supposed tough financial climate. But now we can see that the money was available all along - it was just incompetence from the Conservative Cabinet who couldn't find it. These cuts were all for nothing".

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr. Steve Jordan added "These figures show that the Tory budget was built on sand. They had no idea how much money they had, and now the residents of Cheltenham are paying the price".