Labour leader Scott Dickinson calls for money saved by council cuts to be directed at cash-strapped constituents

Coun Scott Dickinson’s comments came after the council reported an underspend of £2.1m on its budget for the last financial year.

In September, there had been fears the council was facing a significant overspend due to inflationary pressures – and Coun Dickinson said services had been slashed to improve those figures.

He said: “Northumberland County Council has always been a strong performer on finance, with the cost of living crisis it’s even more important it continues to perform that way.

“Only last September the council was forecasting a huge overspend, but they took a hatchet to services for some of our most vulnerable residents and now they’re giving themselves a pat on the back for overachieving while many Northumbrians have been denied services they need. I applaud strong financial performance but not at the cost of residents and services.”

The council’s budget, agreed in February, contained £17m worth of cuts as the authority looked to balance the books. This included a £3m saving from reviewing individual packages of care in adult social care and a total of £3.2m from a range of services across planning and social services.

Coun Dickinson added: “In February we voted against a budget that targeted some of the most vulnerable in our communities for increase, we tried to defend service cuts that local people are now seeing an impact on them personally. We are asking that, rather than put it in the ‘council coffers’, how can people at most need be supported or can some of the damaging cuts to public services be reversed, halved or cushioned.

“Many Northumberland families are struggling, some are on the brink. We have seen rents for council tenants increased by eight per cent and service charges by 11%.”

At last week’s meeting of the council’s cabinet,members praised the council’s finance team for delivering the council under-budget. Of the money saved, deputy leader Coun Richard Wearmouth said £1m would go into the regeneration development reserve, £100,000 to the regeneration reserve and £1m into the exceptional inflation reserve.

Coun Dickinson continued: “The administration are thrilled about underspending by a couple of million, and I am too, but I want to see that money used to help those in most need. If the council has done this well at the expense of local people, we’ll be looking for services to be restored in this financial year.. That’s the very least we can expect.”

Responding to Coun Dickinson’s comments, a Northumberland Conservatives spokesman said: “The Conservative run County Council produced a budget this year, with special help for the less well off, that continues to deliver new schools, new leisure centres, high quality frontline services for an increase in council tax of around three per cent when inflation is running at 10%.

“Labour are deeply disappointed that they failed to come up with our ideas and offered no ideas of their own.”