SAVINGS from transforming council services at the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council will become harder to achieve, according to Christchurch councillor Mike Cox.

He claims the Conservative administration is failing to deliver on savings for this financial year – despite having cut the target amount in half.

Cllr Cox told a meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee that the council was now almost £4m short on its target, despite councillors being promised only a few months ago that the savings would be achieved.

“Some day soon we will have to be told if these savings are ever likely to be achieved,” he said, claiming that the estimated £40m in savings already achieved by combining the previous councils was like picking low-hanging fruit, “the rest will be a lot harder. I do have significant concerns it will fail and drive this authority into bankruptcy,” he said.

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Cllr Cox said that a predicted £9million overspend on the council’s current budget had only been rectified by taking money from reserves, something which was not sustainable in the long term.

“Yet again we are not living within our means,” he warned.

Council leader Drew Mellor disputed the claims and said that the council remained on target with its current, improving, budget allowing it to re-set transformation targets.

“We can deliver transformation in the right way, not in a rushed way,” he said, pointing out that the majority of overspending came from demand-led children’s and adult services.

Councillors were told that almost £1million in staff costs were being saved this year by not being able to fill vacant posts, because of a nationwide shortage of suitable social care staff.

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Cllr Vikki Slade warned that the saving was not good news – meaning more money was likely to be needed in the year ahead to attract and retain staff, or that vulnerable people were going without the full care they were assessed to need.

Cllr Mellor told the committee that everything possible was being done to tackle the shortfalls including savings which were likely to come from making changes to services and from a range of strategies to tackle recruiting and retention problems in social services.