Council leader says debt needs to be reduced

The leader of a council with a £450m debt said he will increase council tax and pause major new road projects.

Outlining plans for Lincolnshire County Council over the next 12 months, Reform UK councillor Sean Matthews said his authority is still paying for previous projects.

"We need to clear that debt. It has already started going down by around £5m since we came into office, but needs to be much lower," he said.

"Until we get a grip of that, we can't afford the luxury."

Matthews told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the overall debt could increase further to £800m due to projects such as the North Hykeham Relief Road started by the previous administration.

He also cited having to deal with delays to the Grantham bypass due to a design error and the Spalding "road to nowhere" which remained unfinished.

However, Matthews did not rule out bidding for government funding for projects.

On the subject of council tax being raised, he said: "It would be unheard of for it not to. The question is if it will be below the rate of inflation, so effectively a cut.

"We stood on a manifesto to cut waste, reduce costs and have a sensible approach to governing. We will do everything we can to keep council tax as low as possible."

In June, Reform UK announced it was to begin Elon Musk-style audits of local councils where they had won control to assess "wasteful spending".

However, Matthews said it had "proved to be far more complex legally" than expected and councils were now being asked to do it themselves.

"It is more of a philosophy than a team. We just cracked on with it, and it's what we do day-to-day," he said.

Commenting on plans for large-scale solar farms in the county, Matthews, who previously pledged to lie down in front of the bulldozers to stop their construction, said: "I completely oppose solar panels on Lincolnshire farmland. It's a temporary fix for a problem that doesn't really exist.

"I look forward to developing future tech like STEP fusion near Gainsborough (a prototype fusion power plant) rather than relying on Chinese solar panels."

"I've got my wellies ready. They're in the back of the car in case I have to rush out to a site somewhere," he added.

Last year, Matthews warned of cuts to services in a bid to save cash.

It is part of the medium-term financial plan, approved by the council, which seeks to make £25.4m of savings in 2026/27, rising to £55.6m in 2028/29.

Correction 10 February: A previous version of this story used a figure of £800m to describe council debt. This figure has been corrected by the LDRS to current outstanding debt of £450m and total projected debt of £800m and we have updated the article to reflect this.

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