COUNCIL departments in Cornwall are set to be asked to tighten their belts over the coming year as the local authority looks to recover a loss of £74 million from the coronavirus while continuing to deliver services.

A plan to help Cornwall Council recover from the financial impacts of Covid-19 was agreed yesterday by Cornwall Council’s leaders in the cabinet.

The plan asks council departments to deliver an underspend over the next financial year, as well as transferring some funds from other budgets so that the council can continue to deliver vital services and move towards achieving a balanced 2020/21 budget.approved, the

Deputy Leader Adam Paynter said: ’It is vital that we plan now to deliver a sustainable budget for the year ahead. The council’s income has suffered as a result of the extra expenditure needed due to Covid-19, as well as a loss of income.

’This plan asks services to deliver an underspend but to continue to deliver vital services to Cornwall residents which will be a challenge. The current estimate of the total impact of Covid-19 on the Council is forecast to be around £74m, although that will fall across different financial years. We will continue to argue the case for more funding from central government to local government.’

But as the plan was approved, the Council, which is led by Independents and Liberal Democrats, came under fire from Conservative members for paying some of its senior officers what were described as ’monstrous’ salaries.

The statement of accounts for 2019-20 was published this week, and showed that the top paid officers, the Service Director for Finance and Commercial, and the Head of Financial Planning and Business Intelligence were paid £233,585 and £200,176 respectively.

Both pay levels are only for salary, fees and allowances and do not include any bonus, expense allowances or pension contributions.

Conservative councillor David Harris said he was “appalled” by the details included in the document. He said: ’I am appalled at the level of officer remuneration shown on page 93 of the accounts.

’How can it be possible to justify the monstrous amounts paid? In the end there is only one pocket that these huge salaries come from and that is the pocket of taxpayers.’