A MAJOR row has broken out in Otley Town Council over the spending of public money.

The Liberal Democrats have accused Labour members on the hung council of overspending by £34,000 while Labour had overall power of the council last year.

But present Labour councillors claim the opposition party is scaremongering and the

projected spending for last year - which included improvements to the Midland Bank triangle and to Otley Civic Centre - was right on target.

The situation has arisen because the former council chose to spend money it knew was coming - rather than wait until it was actually in the

coffers.

And the district auditor, who keeps an eye on the council's spending, has said he has no major concerns - although he accepts the new council may want to handle its spending

differently.

Councillor Jim Spencer, Liberal Democrat chairman of the council's finance and general purposes committee, is now in charge of monitoring the council's accounts. He said: "I have been charged with the task of producing a system to monitor the council accounts and in doing so, I discovered that the previous Labour administration had overspent our current account by £34,000."

Coun Spencer claimed that meant that the current council was now in the difficult position of not having any money in reserves.

"One may imagine that the capital account must cover all the overspend and more but I'm afraid that the capital account only had half the amount needed to cover the planned overspend and obviously none to use as income for the current account making the potential overspend much higher.

"To put this figure in context, it is nearly 25 percent of the total annual income of the town council from the Otley rates and we all know who will have to pay in the end for four years of Labour's lack of financial control."

But Councillor Gerald McGowan, the Labour spokesman on the town council, said it was the worst kind of Liberal Democrat scaremongering and the council's finances were healthy.

He said: "The previous council had its own financial controls, as did the town clerk, Les Cross. The spending for the year to March 1999 was monitored by Councillor David Egan and in December 1998 the projected spending was right on target.

"Coun Spencer took over responsibility for the town council finances in June 1999 and in July the district auditor signed the accounts to March 1999 and stated they were satisfactory."

Coun McGowan claimed allegations from the opposition party about the overspend varied hugely.

"The district auditor did not say there was a deficit of £36,000, or any such figure. The town clerk has not said there was a deficit of £34,000, he and I have had three meetings already to find it, so far without success, and we are looking again this week," he said.

A spokeswoman for the district auditor said: "The auditor has no major concerns about the finances of Otley Town Council. However, the district auditor does recognise that the new administration will be having its own ideas for the council finances for the coming year."

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