COUNCIL leader Cllr Russ Bowden says the authority has an ‘incredibly difficult’ job to deliver for residents and find new ways of making money in the face of ‘painful’ budget cuts.

Amid criticism facing Town Hall chiefs over their risky investment strategy, one of Cllr Bowden's (LAB – Birchwood) objectives is to ensure residents understand the difference between revenue and capital funding.

Revenue funding used on day-to-day spending such as to run services, while capital funding is money borrowed to invest.

The latter can be used to buy or improve assets but not to fund services.

During Tuesday's leader's forum at Orford Community Hub, Cllr Bowden highlighted the £137 million of cuts and savings that the Labour-run council has endured since 2010 in what he labelled as a ‘painful’ journey.

And he stated the authority’s £211 million deal to buy Birchwood Park in 2017 will generate around £5 million of surplus a year to help deliver key services.

He said: “We have two separate budgets in the council – one is the revenue budget which has suffered all the Government cuts.

“That budget is what we pay for services from.

“We also have the capital budget, which is where we borrow money and can invest that in assets.

Warrington Guardian:

Cllr Russ Bowden

“But you can't borrow money to provide services.

“It is about finding ways of making new money to replace what we have lost from the Government.”

But Cllr Bowden admitted the council does not always get things right and vowed to 'take on board' any comments from residents.

And when pressed on the strategy surrounding investments, he says if they ‘all go wrong at the same time’ he believes there would be far bigger problems in the country due to the economy ‘crashing’.

He added: “I think people who come to Warrington recognise it for the place it is and want it to succeed.

“All the decisions we are making around investments and buying property, we have a proper due diligence process, a proper risk assessment, and we take the view that those are risk-informed decisions.

“We think they are the right calls to make for Warrington.

“We think we are making the right calls to try and protect services.

“As a Labour-run council we are always going to want to protect vulnerable people in our community but also to protect everyone.

“It is an incredibly difficult job but I certainly think we are doing the right thing.”