The hole in the city council’s budget that is expected to be plugged by raiding the authority’s reserves has grown to more than one million pounds.

Financial forecasts from bosses at Worcester City Council have revealed they are now expecting the gap in the council’s books to top £1.13 million by the end of March.

This includes the council spending almost £630,000 more than it expected and a shortfall of more than £770,000 in its expected income.

Before the end of the last year, the council was expecting its budget deficit to be around £776,000.

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The council still says it will be able to balance its budget by the end of the year but that will only be done by taking more money from its reserves.

Worcester City Council has blamed rising energy and fuel costs as well as unexpected rises in staff wages for the deficit.

But the same financial reports show the council’s predicted income, in areas such as planning, car parking and development management, has fallen way below expectations, is lighter to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds and is not expected to recover in the next two months.

The income from development management is currently running a deficit of more than £200,000 – double what was expected three months ago and is a gap that would have to be filled with reserves.

A report which reveals the council’s current financial situation again picks out the city’s struggling leisure centres, which are still recovering from a pandemic that saw visitor numbers plummet and are now facing escalating energy bills, as one of the roots of the void in the council’s figures.

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Only last week, councillors agreed to slash opening times at Nunnery Wood Sports Complex as well as close Perdiswell Leisure Centre earlier as a way of saving around £40,000 a year.

The communities committee also discussed other support for the city’s struggling leisure centres including £550,000 for energy-efficiency work as well as handing over £315,000 to help Freedom Leisure, which runs Perdiswell, Nunnery Wood and St John’s leisure centres on behalf of the council, pay its energy bills in the next 12 months.

The city council’s policy and resources committee meets in the Guildhall from 7pm on February 3.