Battle lines are drawn over council spending (From Warrington Guardian)

Battle lines are drawn over council spending

A WAR of words has broken out over the level of council spending, with a senior Labour councillor attacking his Tory opponent.

Clr John Morris, executive member for finance, described Tory councillor Fiona Bruce as being ignorant of budget issues after she slammed Warrington's borrowing record.

He told the Guardian Midweek that Clr Bruce was unaware of how the council's finances work and that Warrington actually had one of the smallest debts compared to equivalent local authorities.

Clr Morris added: "The statement by Fiona Bruce shows her complete inexperience at public affairs and I am surprised that the Tory group allowed her to speak for them.

"Capital has been invested on behalf of the people of Warrington and we have for example, built new schools and improved others.

"It now becomes clear that the policy of Clr Bruce and the Tory group is not to invest in our children's future.

"I hope that people will take note

of this at election time."

Clr Bruce said that Labour had been relying too heavily on using borrowing to allow for spending in the budget. She added that the levels of borrowing now topped £88million in Warrington.

She added: "People deserve to know the state of our council's finances because we will be the ones who will be asked to pay the borrowing back, with accumulated interest, through increased taxes eventually."

The budget is due to be set in February.