WARRINGTON Borough Council is in £274.8 million of debt – but finance bosses will continue borrowing to invest in major schemes to deliver extra income to cope with the cuts.

The audit and corporate governance committee discussed the current debt position and investment strategy at this month's Town Hall meeting.

The figure for borrowing, as of December 31, is made up of £268.7 million in long-term borrowing and £87.3 million in short-term borrowing, taking the total to £356 million.

But council investments – made up of deposits with financial institutions – totalled £81.3 million to bring the figure down to £274.8 million.

Lynton Green, the council's director of finance and information services, joined the authority in March 2010.

He has worked for Kent County Council, Medway Council, London borough of Bromley, Manchester City Council, Sefton Council and Greater Manchester Police.

But he admits his job in the town is proving to be one of the most difficult to date due to budget pressures and funding cuts.

He said: "One of the things people seem to worry about is the council is doing loads of things that involve borrowing and is increasing the debt.

"A lot of what we are doing is increasing debt but it is also bringing in extra income which is paying for the debt we have.

"The part, more worrying to me, is the longer term, older borrowing, that has been here for long time.

"A lot of Warrington's debt is historic and goes back 20 to 30 years.

“For me, when I first got here, the pressure on the budget was not as big as it is now and we still had a lot of Government funding coming.

"Now, we know by 2020 we will have no Government funding from the revenue support grant.

"The pressures on us are so great that we have to do something to generate income or we would have to stop providing services.

"We can't stop delivering services so we need to identify how we can be creative.

"Probably one of the reasons we are ahead of other councils, in doing some of these things now, is because Warrington has always received low levels of funding."

Concerns have been raised over the council's £30 million deal, which will see it buy a 33 per cent share in a new bank, as well as purchases of the sites occupied by DW Sports and Matalan.

But Mr Green insists they will benefit the town.

He said: "People do say Warrington is being quite commercial.

"There are no plans to sell the bank on.

“If the business case delivers – as we expect it to – the council will receive dividends from the bank in year five.

"If it outperforms we will get dividends before then.

"The reason for setting it up was to help businesses – it will help businesses grow and boost the economy."

Mr Green also admits it is 'unlikely' there will ever be a time the authority completely clears its debts.

"If the bank did exceptionally well and we sold it then it could be possible," he added.

"One of my former authorities, the London borough of Bromley, was debt free.

"That was because before I went they sold their housing stock and the value of housing in Bromley was at such a level it paid off all of its debts."

Despite the revenue support grant funding ending, future bids to Government departments for cash could still be successful.