COUNCIL leaders have warned that nearly £2 million of savings still have to be found by next March as it seeks to balance the books in the New Year.

Cllr Stewart Young, the Labour leader of Cumbria County Council, and the Lib Dem finance frontbencher Cllr Pat Bell, told a meeting of the ruling Cabinet that council savings plans are largely 'on track'.

Back in February, the council set a budget to achieve savings and cuts totalling around £27.9 million which led to bus subsidy cuts and other income-generating initiatives, among others.

In an update by officers at a meeting in Kendal today (Thursday), it was said that 94 per cent of the identified savings are expected to be 'secured' by the end of the financial year.

But there is a projected overspend of about £1.8 million in the council's revenue budget.

It means council managers and councillors will be further warned to find equivalent savings as March 2015 nears and 'non-essential expenditure' is now being discussed.

In addition, the council's reserves, or the cash it sets aside to tackle major disasters, such as flooding, and keep services going, are also expected to fall to £13.2 million.

This is 'significantly below' the £15 million the council decided it wants 'in the bank' to cope with a sudden crisis.

Cllr Young, referring to the recent abandonment of the controversial idea to introduce parking machines in streets throughout Cumbria and charge for the administration of a residents' parking scheme, had now left the county with £950,000 to find before March.

"As we're not finding those savings from there (parking), they will have to be found from somewhere else," he warned.

"Either by generating income or reducing expenditure," said Cllr Young, speaking at the County Hall in Kendal.

"Ultimately, unlike Government, we have to balance our budget every year.

"The Government cuts our funding without any consultation with us and without explaining where they are to come from, so it's left down to local government to explain and then implement them."

Cllr Pat Bell, who was only recently handed the finance portfolio for the Lab- Lib Dem administration, said of the outstanding sum still to be found: "Every effort must be made to manage this extra pressure."

But she reassured the Cabinet that 'no frontline spending' was to be 'stopped'.

Cllr Bell also said that the council faces having to find a further £83 million of savings over the next three years - yet its ongoing budget consultation with the public, which ends on January 20, has only identified £53 million of potential savings.

"Every effort will be made to balance the budget this financial year," said Cllr Bell. The county's 84 councillors - who are given cash to spend in their communities - are also to be told that any underspends can be carried into the new financial year.

Papers before councillors show that up until September of this year, the council was owed £19.7 million in outstanding debt.

This is a fall on the previous quarter - and is made up of £15.7 million owed to adult social care, and £3.9 million to other sections of the council.

Cllr Young added: "What we don't want to see is 'I have money in my budget and have to spend it by March and they spend it in ways where there isn't sufficient thought. I'm not saying that will happen, but there's always a risk.'"

Cllr Clare Feeney-Johnson, the Lib Dem member for Kendal Nether, said: "We can't under estimate the amount of work that's gone into getting us to this stage. £2 million is an awful lot of money but isn't against the challenge which has been met."

Cllr Anne Burns,  Labour's Hindpool councillor, praised council staff.

"It's not easy chopping this amount of money off. At the end of the day, people will hurt because we don't have the funding and finances to do all what we want to do."

The Cabinet went into Part Two - excluding press and public - to discuss writing off £161,000 of 'irrecoverable debts'.