Conwy is facing “service pressures” amounting to £5.49 million in the current financial year.

At a cabinet meeting at Bodlondeb this week, councillors were briefed on Conwy’s precarious financial position for 2024/25 but told “robust” cost-cutting measures were now in place across services.

A quarterly monitoring report on the revenue budget 2024/2025 was presented to cabinet members, who heard how the projected outturn for social care had risen due to increased demand and pressure.

This increased outturn included rising costs associated with children looked after, vulnerable people, and older people services.

In addition, and “partly caused by the increased demand”, councillors were told savings included in the budget had not been achieved.

The report also stated that Conwy was also ‘in protracted negotiations with the health board as to their contribution on a number of high cost complex cases’.

Other problem areas of increased outturn included home-to-school transport, housing, and increased costs in the council’s environment, roads, and facilities department, which included vehicle repair and hire costs amounting to £400,000 alone.

Leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey addressed the chamber and said: “Members will be aware that every year we set a budget. Basically, what we are doing is trying to make an estimate of what services we need to deliver in the following financial year with a large number of unknowns.

“The purpose of this report is basically to see how much we are on track with that forecasted spending. Again, the keynote figure here is that our outlay service pressure is £5.49m.

“We have to estimate demand. If people require statutory services, we have to supply them. We are seeing real pressures in our social care, both in terms of increased demand and our adult services and our children, and also the cost of delivering those services.”

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Cllr McCoubrey then said complex negotiations were continuing with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board over who contributes towards the care of ‘the most vulnerable’.

He added: “Clearly we have to offer the best level of care we can.”

He then said Conwy was a rural county that incurred high home-to-school transport costs.

He said that, post COVID, ‘getting kids to school was incredibly important’ but a ‘significant pressure’ but added Conwy were looking to ‘rein it in’.

Cllr McCoubrey also referred to housing being a statutory duty and said he was proud of keeping the homeless off the county’s streets.

He said: “If people are homeless, it is a statutory duty that we look after them. I’m really proud that in Conwy we don’t have a lot of street homeless. We cannot and do not turn people away.”

Cllr McCoubrey said the overspend in the environment, roads, and facilities department was down to the time it had taken to make the agreed budget savings.

He also referred to the cost of the council’s ageing fleet of vehicles.

“If vehicles are past their sell-by date, we know they’ll be increased costs,” he said.

The report summarised Conwy’s need to drive down costs.

It read: “As stressed previously we cannot afford the estimated potential shortfall and need to continue to take as much corrective action as possible to minimise the position.

“Since the beginning of October, robust spending controls have been in place with both a Procurement Panel and Spend Control Panel operational. This has brought consistent rigour and scrutiny to all spend, other than those areas where there is an agreed exemption.

“These processes assist in managing spend, but the responsibility to manage budgets remains with the heads of service who are charged with the need to do everything they can to manage their budgets.”

The cabinet agreed to note the latest assessment of the estimated budgetary position for 2024/25.

Members also voted in favour of ‘pausing and slowing expenditure that can be deferred’ without impacting unduly on services.