An overspend running into many millions of pounds is again being projected for the council this year.

Early indications following the first three month monitoring period suggest the overspend in the adults, children and education department alone will be almost £2m.

"The council appears not to have learned lessons from last year when it found itself in a similar situation", said Labour's Coun. Julie Gunnell, the Group's Corporate Services spokesperson.

"The Liberal Democrats said they needed to build extra money into the base budget for an expected increase in demand for social services, and yet even with that its overall budget looks set to be hugely overspent. By poor financial planning, they are jeopardising those essential services that the elderly and others rely on.

"The City Strategy directorate is currently heading for almost a £1m overspend with Communities and Neighbourhoods projecting a budget £0.75m overspent. In the current climate when the coalition Government is making swingeing cuts to the public sector, it is even more crucial that the Council gets its finances in order.

"My worry is that the Lib Dems will simply take a short term decision to plug this gap which will lead to more problems for next year's budget. If they don't tackle it now, then they will be showing a party incapable of taking the difficult and necessary decisions to protect services in the future".

The projected overspends will be detailed in a report to go before the Executive on 6th September. Coun. Gunnell said she expects the Executive to signal then what action will be taken to reverse the slide.

Last year Labour leader Coun. James Alexander challenged Executive Member Jonathan Morley to address the overspends in his portfolio area, and to attend Health Scrutiny Committee to discuss ways of avoiding overspends this year to ensure they did not occur again, something he refused to do.

Coun. Alexander said he personally attended a meeting to seek answers on the adult social services overspend last year but concluded that Coun. Morley should resign due to his lack of action on such a critical issue.