There's a £16.7m gap in Tameside, and the council has just six months to plug it

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Tameside Council has just six months to plug a £16.7m gap in its budget. Town hall bosses have already outlined potential savings of just over £4m by the end of the financial year, meaning they have another £12.3m of cuts to find by April 2025.

As it stands, the budget for next year is £16.7m short mainly due to overspending in children’s and adult services. If the council did nothing, in six months time it would have dip into its reserves - of £154.66m - to plug up the hole in their finances. READ MORE: The village 'cut off' from the rest of Greater Manchester due to constant cancelled trains Savings have already been made through freezes on recruitment on certain non-priority positions in the workforce.

But 'difficult decisions' will have to be made in the coming months, according to finance boss Coun Jack Naylor. Although there are contingency resources available to plug the gap, they can only be used once a year.

So if the council used those funds now they would have to find other ways to break even later down the line if other unexpected costs occur.