A CONSERVATIVE councillor has warned "the chickens have come home to roost" after the council's budget proposal revealed a shortfall of more than £18 million.

Joe Miller, finance spokesman for the Brighton and Hove Conservative group, said that poor policy decisions made by councillors are beginning to catch up with the current council administration.

He singled out the cost of hiring private contractors to clear weeds and the price of resolving industrial disputes for criticism, and said "the council's policy blunders have set it back".

He said: "Unfortunately, it is the taxpayer that will now have to pay for these policy failures, poor mismanagement and waste of this council, as the Greens and Labour plan to hike council taxes once again.

"The council has been throwing taxpayers' money down a sinkhole, and now has created a budget black hole for the city."

Cllr Miller said Conservative amendments to the budget will focus on the "people's priorities" for the city.

A report outlining the council's proposed budget for the year ahead warned of "difficult decisions" amid a budget shortfall estimated at over £18 million.

It said that failure to manage finances could end up with an impact on service delivery and the threat of government intervention.

Among the "pressure points" the council faces, the report included a "reliance on income from fees and charges, particularly parking and permit revenues", the cost of resolving recent industrial disputes, and the higher numbers of council tax reduction claimants since the start of the pandemic.

Councillor Tom Druitt, joint finance lead, said developing proposals for the 2022/23 budget had been "extremely challenging" and said that cuts to local government funding over a decade and the cost of dealing with the pandemic have put the council in a difficult situation.

He said: "Our priorities are the protection of services for the most vulnerable, supporting the city's recovery from the pandemic and investing for the future."

The proposed budget package will be presented to the council on February 24, where it will be put to all councillors for consideration to set the budget for the year ahead.

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