CORPORATE Director of finance for Monmouthshire County Council told members borrowing money in the medium-term will lead to savings for the authority in the long-term.

At last week's full council meeting in County Hall Steve Greenslade outlined the council's medium term plan (MTP) which looks at delivering resources aligned to council priorities between 2009 and 2013.

In the report it details of its major capital pressures, £81 million must be invested in completing the Primary Schools Strategic Review and undertaking the Secondary Education Review. This will involve new buildings at Monmouth and King Henry VIII Comprehensive Schools. An investment of £51 million is needed to bring the county's highways to the level of a safe road network. Some £18 million will go to providing office accommodation for 450 employees once County Hall closes in the next few years.

Councillor Phyl Hobson asked if borrowing was necessary, "Do we really need to go down this route of borrowing?"

Mr Greenslade said that the council would need to source around £2.5 million for highways. "If we borrow money over three to four years to invest in highways, there will not be so many in disrepair and not a huge amount of patching up to do later," he said.

He added that the move should lead to a reduction in the revenue budget in four years time. He did stress that any assessment of resource availability in the medium term is, by definition, imprecise.

"This is because the majority of funding comes from the Welsh Assembly. With amounts only decided until 2011, funding levels for 2012 and 2013 are not yet available," he added.

At the moment 53.3 percent of the council's funding comes from a Welsh Assembly Revenue Support Grant. For 2008/09 it will receive £71.5 million.

Council members were told that plans for a new county hall were a work in progress but would probably require borrowing.

He said the current facility is an old, decrepit, inefficient building, "The savings at a newer, smaller building can be converted into borrowing."