Eastbourne Conservatives leader David Elkin said he was growing increasingly worried at the financial situation emerging at the Town Hall.

"There is with out doubt a black hole emerging that could put even Gordon Brown in the shade," said the Meads councillor.

"With a predicted £350,000 deficit in the Liberal Democrats' first budget, the loss of £360,000 losses on Airborne, £520,000 spent on the now on-hold town centre, £2.4 million spent on both funding and underwriting the new Cultural Centre, things are not looking good.

"And now as a result of the sale of Eastbourne Buses, there is the promise of a multi-million pound bill to cover its pension shortfall."

Councillor Elkin's concerns come after it was revealed Eastbourne Borough Council will have to meet the cost of protecting the pensions of Eastbourne Buses employees and that could run in to millions of pounds.

"While I understand the East Sussex pension providers are being very accommodating, both the full cost and level of risk that residents have to fund will very much depend on decisions made by the cabinet committee at Eastbourne Borough Council," said Cllr Elkin.

"This decision, if not made with the utmost prudence, will result in the town facing a huge bill for decades to come. This is all very worrying at a time when the council has no financial director, leaving lay councillors to make multi-million pound deals.

"And if what we have seen of their decisions so far is anything to go by, they have their very own financial shambles."

But council leader David Tutt hit back at Councillor Elkin's claims and disputed the accusation that Liberal Democrats were mismanaging the town's finances.

"This year the budget will be a balanced budget," said Councillor Tutt.
"You go through times in the financial year when you are either ahead or below targets but it will be a balanced budget at the year end."

Cllr Tutt said as far as he was concerned the £360,000 hole in the budget from the Airbourne charging fiasco had been 'dealt with'.

"That was dealt with from the strategic change fund and incidentally when we took control of the Town Hall that had a balance of £300,000. It is now at £700,000 having dealt with the loss of Airbourne. That is what you call thorough, sound financial management."

The Liberal Democrat politician refused to get drawn in to any debate over the cost of the now shelved town centre regeneration plan and said when proposals for the Cultural Centre were first on the drawing board, the Conservatives said the council would underwrite what he called a 'massive shortfall'.

"I have said it before but when we took over control of the council the finances were an absolute shambles. We have turned that around and there is audited evidence of it."