Monmouthshire County Council Labour Leader Dimitri Batrouni has spoken out against the recent budget cuts in light of an £877,000 underspend by the authority at the end of the year. In a Cabinet Meeting this week, councillors discussed the draft revenue budget outturn report for 2013/14, and agreed to contribute the surplus balance on the revenue account to general reserves but some members feel that this surplus funds could have been put to better use during the difficult financial year, and could have been used to avoid some of the more controversial budget cuts. Councillor Batrouni said, "It is scandalous the Tories have nearly £900,000 leftover after last year's budget. The Labour group called for no cuts to special educational and additional learning needs children, no charges for over 60s swimming, and no cuts to our schools.  "What we have seen are cuts to each and every one of them as the Tories claimed they were necessary. We told them how to avoid cuts by capping hospitality and cut spending on private consultants but they didn't listen.  "Now we know they wanted to make these cuts, because it is clear they had the money and these cuts could have been avoided. In fact, they could have paid for all these things and still had £500,000 leftover." Council leader Peter Fox has hit back at Councillor Batrouni's comments, and said, "I am disappointed at Councillor Batrouni's statement - it is simplistic and misleading. "As he is aware the medium term budget was approved by the council in March. It makes use of reserve funding to smooth out the deficits and surpluses over the next few years and expected some of those reserves to be replaced. "I commend the hard work of all staff in all areas of the council for making efficiencies in these difficult times. The £877,000 surplus which equates to just over half a per cent of the council budget will help the council to manage the very difficult financial situation it is facing recognising that the Welsh Labour Government are planning huge additional cuts to local government funding next year."