Sheffield City Council underspent its budget by nearly half a million pounds this year despite wasting millions on consultants and political vanity projects.

The Council’s budget outturn report set to be agreed by councillors next week, reports that the Council underspent its 2012-13 budget by £460,000.

Critics claim that the £460,000 would more than cover the £400,000 running cost of Stocksbridge Leisure Centre, which the Council claimed it could not afford to run. Equally, the £66,000 bill to keep open six community toilets, is dwarfed by the Council underspend.

The Council has already been hit by criticism for spending £4.7 million on consultants in 12 months, £1.2 million over two years on the failed ‘Burngreave New Deal’ and £2.5 million over two years on the Park Hill project.

The £460,000 underspend will now be placed into the Council’s reserves.

Cllr Andrew Sangar, Sheffield Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Finance, said:

“Given the millions that Labour councillors have blown on high-paid consultants and personal pet projects, it seems hard to believe that the Council has managed to underspend its budget by almost half a million pounds.

“Labour seem absurd when they claim that services like community toilets are unaffordable, when they cost just at a fraction of this underspend. Instead of tucking this money away into their millions of reserves, these funds should be used to protect the front-line services that people care about most.”

via Council fails to spend budget despite millions in waste | Sheffield Liberal Democrats.