Harrogate Borough Council is forecasting to spend £2.5m more than budgeted in its final year of existence, a meeting has heard.

The council’s revenue budget for the year is £21.8m and it was predicted to overspend on this sum by £701,000 at the previous quarterly update in July.

But last night’s overview and scrutiny committee heard the figure had increased to £2.5m in the latest quarterly forecast for the period to October.

Gillian Morland, service finance manager at the council, said the “two really big variances” were utility prices and larger than expected staff pay increases.

Gillian Morland speaking at last night’s meeting.

Ms Morland said utility bills were £1.7m above budget and staff pay was £1.1m higher than expected following the 2022/23 pay award.

She told the meeting the council had locked into a 12-month rate for electricity but gas prices were “more complicated and it is possible we could see a reduction of up to £600,000 on the overspend that’s quoted in the report”.

She added the council had budgeted for a 2.5 percent pay increase and the agreed figure turned out to be almost 6.7%.

“As things stand we are looking at a sizeable overspend this year.

“We are hoping overspend will come down but we do have sufficient funds to cover it.”

John Mann, the Conservative councillor for Pannal, told the meeting the overspend was “typical of most councils”, which were dealing with similar issues relating to rising utility bills and pay awards.

Harrogate Borough Council is one of seven district councils, which along with North Yorkshire County Council, will be abolished on April 1 to make way for the new North Yorkshire Council.

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The full extent of the multi-million pound overspend on the junction 47 upgrade on the A1(M) remains unknown — six months after the project ended.

The scheme near Flaxby, which was originally budgeted to cost £7.7m, finished in April, seven months later than planned.

North Yorkshire County Council revealed more than a year ago that costs had increased to £10m and has not given an updated figure since.

The Stray Ferret asked the council this week when a figure would be published.

Richard Binks, head of major projects and infrastructure at the council, said:

 “We are continuing discussions with our contractor over the final account agreement.

“The project was completed in summer, since then remedial and road safety audit work has been undertaken, so we are only a few months beyond substantial completion of the project.

“It is usual for final accounts to take several months to be brought to a conclusion. We are confident of reaching a conclusion shortly.”

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Scheme ‘unlocks growth around Harrogate’

The scheme involved widening three of the four slip roads onto and off the roundabout to increase capacity, as well as a number of junction improvements.

Traffic signals were installed on the roundabout to improve traffic flow and added to the T-junction between the A168 and the A59, a short distance from junction 47 on the York side to benefit drivers turning onto the A59 and to improve safety.

To the west of junction 47, between the A1 and the Flaxby roundabout, a lane was added for traffic travelling east, so there are now two lanes in each direction between those two roundabouts.

Officials celebrate the completion of works.

Cllr Keane Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways, previously said the project had reduced congestion and improved road safety, adding:

“The scheme unlocks future growth in and around Harrogate, with the changes helping to manage significant residential and commercial development anticipated along the A59 corridor.”