Council aims to avoid financial distress - leader

Cheshire East Council is currently forecasting a £13m shortfall

The leader of a council in Cheshire has said he is doing “everything” he can to avoid a notice of financial distress being issued to the authority.

Sam Corcoran, the Labour leader of Cheshire East Council, told BBC Politics North West, that all councillors were working to "make the savings needed" to obviate a section 114 notice.

Other councils, including Birmingham and Nottingham, have issued the notices in recent months, which means an authority is unable to balance its budget and is effectively bankrupt.

Cheshire East Council previously said it was facing an overspend of £13m in the current financial year, while its reserves stand at £14.1m.

Sam Corcoran is the Labour leader of Cheshire East Council

Mr Corcoran said: “I’ll be doing everything we can to avoid [a section 114]”.

“Cheshire East Council has low reserves,” he added.

“That leaves us vulnerable to shocks and cancellation of HS2 was a major shock.”

He has previously raised concerns about the impact of the scrapping of the northern section of HS2 on the council’s finances.

Libraries in Cheshire East have had their opening hours cut as part of the savings

Mr Corcoran added: “A section 114 is not issued by the political leadership, it's issued by the finance officer of the council so I can’t give you a definite answer but I can say I’ll be doing everything I can.

“Hopefully all councillors will be working together to make the savings needed to avoid a section 114 notice.

"We legally have to set a balanced budget at the end of February and that’s what we’ll be working to do.”

Cheshire East Council has introduced a number of cost-saving measures in its current financial year, including cutting library opening hours, charging for garden waste collections and reviews of parking costs and leisure centres.

Further cuts are proposed in its 2024/25 budget, which is set to be signed off in February.