THE leader of the opposition at the Guildhall has slammed city council leaders for allowing the city's finances to become so stretched.

Labour group leader Adrian Gregson said the Tory administration had only itself to blame for creating a situation where more than £3 million in savings must be found in the coming year alone.

Conservative council leader Simon Geraghty has blamed years of Government under-funding for the city's financial woes, coupled with increasing demands on small county towns.

But Coun Gregson said the situation should have been dealt with many years ago.

“It's very disappointing we've got to this stage,” he said.

“It didn't have to come to this in my view – it's really the fault of poor political management.

“They tell us they've been warning us about this for some time, so why wasn't this addressed years ago? Why has it taken a set of consultants to tell us how bad things are?”

The city's Labour MP Mike Foster pointed to years of below-inflation council tax rises as the root cause of the council's problems.

“This administration made a political decision back in 2000 to keep tax rises artificially low, regardless of the increase in cost of providing services,” he said. “Unfortunately we are now paying the price.”

Mr Foster said that higher Government grant settlements would still have come “nowhere near” addressing the council's £4.3 million budget gap.

The city's Liberal Democrat group leader Sue Askin said she was “very concerned” about the implications of the cuts for some of the city's most vulnerable people.