TRAFFORD Council has admitted that a £6 million shortfall in the budget for 2014/2015, could be nearer to £7million.

The admission has left opposition councillors claiming that the Tory run administration had 'lost control' of its budget with additional cuts proposed for social services across the borough.

The £6m shortfall figure was first revealed just three months into the 2014/2015 financial year, after which the authority launched an investigation into what went wrong.

Now an additional £900,000 demand has been made in a report to the local authority's executive, which details additional cuts to the children, families and wellbeing budget, as it tussles with balancing the financial year's balance sheet.

In the report of Cllr Patrick Myers, the executive member for finance, said "The period 3(Oct to Dec, 2014) revenue budget monitor highlighted that the forecast service activity levels of demand in adult social care was in excess of the approved budget in the region of £6.5 million.

"The period 4 (Jan to March, 2015) is currently being drafted but the provisional assessment is that the figure could rise to £6.9 million."

Reacting to the latest figures, the deputy Labour leader Cllr Andy Western said: ""It’s absolutely clear now that the Tory executive has lost control of the budget.

"They claim to have been managing this overspend since April, yet the size of the black hole in the council’s finances continues to increase."

The report itself details cuts of up to £3.3 million in services, which also provide for some of the poorest and most vulnerable in the borough.

The additional cuts within that department include £17,000 from providing beds for people with learning disabilities, taking £13,000 from the Learning Disability Development Fund, £50,000 from respite care, cuts amounting to £10,000 for Trafford Mental Health Advocacy Service and a staffing freeze in the children and families directorate.

Cllr Myers said that the council’s primary concern was to provide for the needs of the most vulnerable.

“As adult social care is demand led, the requirement can therefore go up as well as down.

"The initial assessment carried out was for an additional spending need of £6 million. This has been revised using more up to date information.

"The council is dealing with the shortfall now so there is no overspend in this financial year.”