Pendle Council 'faces stark position' with £8m funding gap

Pendle Leisure Trust, which manages local swimming pools and leisure centres, must look for ways to save money

Pendle Borough Council faces a "stark position" with a forecast £8m funding gap for its day-to-day operations over the next three years, a report has found.

The Conservative-run council's leaders plan to take £1m from its reserves to ease pressures on the budget.

Core services next year are forecast at £15.6m, but income to fund them forecast at £975,000 less.

The proposals will be decided at a full budget meeting on 24 February.

Pendle councillors are being advised by officers that using reserves is not sustainable in future years and new solutions must be found to match council expenditure with income, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

A council transformation programme has recently been launched, using £250,000 to pay outside consultants to identify new ways of running the borough council.

'Negative manner'

Pendle Leisure Trust, which manages local swimming pools, leisure centres and services for the council, should also produce a transformation programme, councillors on the borough's Policy and Resources Committee heard on Friday.

The trust's venues include Pendle Wavelengths, Pendle Leisure Centre, West Craven Leisure Centre, Colne Muni Theatre, Inside Spa and the Ace Centre.

Council leader Nadeem Ahmed said: "The only way things can work is for all groups to work positively rather than in a negative manner."

However, Labour and Lib-Dem councillors said Pendle Conservatives had gained no extra funding from the government, despite it being Conservative.

They said the council budget plans were insubstantial and Pendle Leisure Trust could now pay the price for government's cuts and the local Conservatives lack of ideas.

But the ruling Conservatives rejected the claims and said transformation plans were on the way for the council's long-term future sustainability.

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