BOURNEMOUTH town hall bosses adopted plans to plug an estimated £2m leak in the social care budget.

The proposals from Bournemouth Borough Council officers contained warnings that failure to act could see spending on care in the community soar past the £10 million mark.

Councillors on the adult and community services scrutiny panel passed without discussion a range of measures outlined by service chief, Neil Smurthwaite, to cope with an overspend running into millions.

Mr Smurthwaite warned councillors that without action, the department's funding shortfall could spiral to more than seven times the amount estimated in his report to the committee.

He said: "If no action is taken, the overspend could reach £14 million."

And fears of spending cuts for carers and people depending on council services could not be discounted he added. "It is beholden on us to consider all options," said Mr Smurthwaite.

But he went on to warn committee members that cuts might be counter-productive. "Research shows that spending cuts only produce short term savings. We don't want to cut services and we will try everything we can to avoid that," said Mr Smurthwaite.

The council's community care chief warned members that the department's budget was facing a crisis. "There is an ever increasing gap between budget and expenditure. We are looking at a sizeable problem," said Mr Smurthwaite.

And he added that social care in Bournemouth was facing particular pressure from a government initiative to take people out of hospitals and into the community. "There are additional challenges for Bournemouth with the difficult and challenging behaviour of people coming from the campus of the Dorset health care foundation," he said.

"There is pressure to move these people out of health care. Making this move will create additional costs for us," he added.

Improved hospital care had created its own problems for those providing care in the community, said Mr Smurthwaite. "Hospitals are keeping people alive longer, which has an effect on social care. Clearly this is a good thing," he added.

Mr Smurthwaite said his department had already managed to find savings of £500,000 since the publication of his report on October 7.

"Had we done nothing, then we would still have been looking at the £2.9m shortfall published in the paper written two weeks ago."