SOMERSET County Council could “run out of money in the next two to three years” unless urgent action is taken to curb spending.

An official audit of the council has criticised its “pervasive” overspending and its failure to deliver sufficient savings over the last 12 months.

The report comes as the chairman and vice-chairman of the audit committee have resigned both from their posts and the council’s ruling Conservative group.

The council has said that action is being taken to ensure that services are protected and to make certain that the overspending does not continue.

Grant Thornton LLP’s damning report was published ahead of yesterday’s (July 26) audit committee meeting.

The auditor said that the council’s financial health had “deteriorated” over the last 12 months as a result of “continued overspending”, particularly on children’s services.

A spokesman said: “This has necessitated further use of already depleted reserves. That now means the council has limited capacity to fund any further overspending.

“The inability of the council to deliver against its budget is now pervasive to the whole council, and without urgent actions could result in it running out of money in the next two to three years.”

A peer review by the Local Government Association previously highlighted that the council would “only have sufficient resources to balance its budget for one more year” if overspending remained at the same level.

The council’s record on delivering “arbitrary” levels of savings was also criticised, with the audit identifying that just over half of the savings promised last year had actually been successfully delivered.

Of the £19.5 million which the council had aimed to deliver in savings in 2017/18, only £11.1m – 57 per cent – was successfully achieved.

The spokesman said: “Although a large number of the smaller savings schemes were delivered in 2017/18, overall achievement of the savings target in year was adversely impacted by the failed delivery of the high value schemes.

“Specifically, for three programmes with a total savings target of £13.5m, only £5.6m was realised in the year.”

The audit also said that existing service provision was not delivering value for money, stating that the council “does not have proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.”

Last Thursday (July 19), the council confirmed that the chairman and vice-chairman of its audit committee – Cllrs Dean Ruddle and Neil Bloomfield respectively – had resigned from both their posts and the council’s Conservative group.

Cllr Ruddle said: “I can no longer support the party’s direction of travel on local government finance."

Cllr Clare Paul has been appointed as the new audit chairman, with Cllr Gemma Verdon taking over as vice-chairman.

Council chief executive Patrick Flaherty said that the audit reinforced the findings of the peer review and that action was being taken to tackle overspending.