NOT enough has been done in the past to make Surrey County Council’s finances sustainable, according to the local authority’s new leader.

That was the “truth” laid out by Tim Oliver who listed the extent of financial problems the council has been facing over the years.

Mr Oliver, who has been leader for eight weeks, said the county council had used £80m from its reserves since 2014 to supplement its budget.

And they had been left with “no choice” but to raise the council tax by 2.99 per cent.

Mr Oliver said £106m of savings had already been made over the past couple of years for the transformation programme.

In his speech to the council chamber at County Hall on Tuesday (February 5), where the budget and council tax rise for 2019/20 was approved, Mr Oliver said: “In truth we have not done enough in the past to ensure our finances are sustainable and this is now a major piece of work. But I am determined we will put this council’s finances on a solid footing as quickly as possible.”

He said they will not have to rely on reserves next year but did say the decision to increase council tax, which will generate £680m in funding, was not one any member had “any pleasure in making” - particularly as Surrey residents already pay some of the highest council tax in the country.

Surrey’s rise means an extra 81p a week for a Band D property with the county council’s share of the total bill rising to £1,453.50 annually. The adult social care precept will remain at £102.39 and the total revenue budget for Surrey will be £885.9m.

Mr Oliver said he was “disappointed” that Surrey had not been chosen to take part in the second year of a pilot scheme around business rates retention.

He said he was “hopeful” the budget being laid out would “limit increases” in the future but he said they needed to “radically redesign” the way they deliver services.

Mr Oliver said: “I know there has been widespread concern about the children’s centres, but the truth is that the proposals approved will help us better target the support to the most vulnerable and those most in need.”

As well as reducing the number of children’s centres, the council will be limiting use of disabled bus passes and has decided to put off plans to close four recycling centres until after review of their use is carried out. The future of libraries will go out for further consultation and a Special Educational Needs and Disability strategy will be drawn up.

At the meeting on Tuesday, 54 councillors voted to approve the budget and council tax rise, with 17 voting against and three abstaining.

Speaking against the cuts and tax rise, Chris Botten, Lib Dem leader, said some cuts were “unnecessary” and that they were unsure of what the impact on residents would be.

He said: “While it is hard to know how the impacts could have been made known to us, the cuts required are deeper and more wide ranging as a result of the council’s failure to address the deep-rooted problems which have been identified over the last five years at least; the council’s complacency, its wishful thinking, its banking on a chimerical bail-out, and failure to address the treasury management and property portfolio comes back to haunt us and make life so much harder.”

He said it was “baffling” that services were being cut but that £2.5m was being spent on interim management staff.

? Council tax payers will also be billed by Waverley for the maximum amount agreed by government, after a tax hike of 2.99 per cent was approved by the borough council’s executive on Tuesday.

This equates to an increase of £5.30 over the year, or 10p a week, for a Band D household. Waverley faces a budget shortfall of around £3.8m by 2022/23 but proposes no cuts in services, no reductions in community grants and no raises in car-parking charges.

Farnham Town Council has also signed off a 2.99 per cent increase, while Surrey Police and Crime Panel has agreed a 10 per cent hike – leaving the average Band D homeowner in Farnham facing a yearly £1,960.89 council tax bill, up 3.89 per cent from £1,887.52 in 2018/19. Haslemere Town Council has agreed not to increase its precept for 2019/10.