MONEY set aside for a rainy day will need to be used to plug gaps in Blaenau Gwent’s budget for this financial year.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Corporate Overview and Performance scrutiny committee councillors looked at the state of the 2022/2023 budget as it stood at the end of September.

The report predicted that the council would be £1.1 million over its £169.19 million budget.

This new prediction is £530,000 more than the position at the end of the first quarter of the financial year in June,

To negate this and come in with balanced budget at the end of March 2023, £791,000 from “specific” reserves would need to be used, as well as £430,000 from the council’s “general” budget reserve.

Blaenau Gwent’s chief resources officer, Rhian Hayden explained that help to deal with costs associated with the cost-of-living crisis, such as the temporary 20 per cent uplift for home to school transport contracts, would continue until the end of March 2023

She also believed that high inflation would continue well into the New Year and needed to be factored into future forecasts.

Ms Hayden said: “We do keep that constantly under review and if we see signs that fuel prices are consistently reducing, we will revisit that arrangement.”

She added that some departments were managing financial pressures this year by not filling job vacancies.

Cllr Ross Leadbeater said; “We’ve been saving for a rainy day – but the hurricane is outside now.”

Committee chairwoman, Cllr Joanne Wilkins asked a question up the catering overspend of £460,000.

The report mentioned that the catering suppliers are dealing with a 54 per cent increase in costs of products.

The £460,000 overspend does not include whether the council would need to pay itself for the universal roll out of free school meals, which they expected the Welsh Government would pay for.