‘Difficult decisions’ as council reports projected overspend of £8.3 million

Dale Spridgeon, local democracy reporter

A council has warned that “difficult decisions lie ahead” as they report a projected £8.3 million overspend.

Rising costs, demand for services and pressures on budgets has seen Cyngor Gwynedd council report “significant” overspends in five departments.

A total of 83% of the £8.3m relates to costs in the adult and children care field, a council cabinet meeting heard.

Overspends

The overspends affect the departments for adults, health and well-being, children and families, highways, engineering and YGC and environment.

Presenting the report, Councillor Huw Wyn Jones, cabinet member for finance, said in the adults department a £3.3 million overspend was expected compared with £3.9m in 2023/24.

Councillor Jones said there were a “combination” of factors behind the overspend, including an increase in the pressures on domiciliary care provision, higher staffing costs, sickness levels and “high rates of non-contact hours within the internal provision”.

Other issues included £1.5m overspending in the older people service, and supported accommodation in the learning disabilities service.

The children and families department overspend had also “worsened substantially” increasing to £3.7m, from £2.6m, mainly due to increased out-of-county placement costs.

The highways, engineering and YGC department was also expected to have an overspend of £699k, the environment department £970k, and waste collection and recycling £667k.

Increasing demand

Chief executive Dafydd Gibbard said: “The report sets the context for the decisions we have to make in the coming weeks, and setting the council tax.”

“We use the term overspend every year – we should erase that term – it gives the impression it is spending out of control, but that’s not the case, what it means is there is not enough money in the budget due to increasing demand for our services and increasing costs.”

“Departments only have two choices, to overspend or to cut services and to not provide services when people come to our door.”

He added: “Stopping services is just not an option…these are extremely difficult decisions.”