Bucks County Council’s £6 million overspend is likely to increase even further, a council officer has warned.

Residents are facing major cuts to services, including road repairs, after the county council announced it will freeze all ‘non-essential’ spending after admitting it was on course to overspend its budget by £6 million.

That figure is now set to increase according to Bucks County Council officer for Beaconsfield, Rebecca Carley, who said it was ‘already looking like’ it will be more than originally predicted.

Speaking at a meeting of the Beaconsfield forum on Thursday, she said: “The big ticket item in the county council this month is around the spending freeze on all non-essential expenditure.

“This isn’t really a great surprise to councillors and officers who have been within the county council for some time.

“We talked about a possibly shortfall of £6 million, everything I am hearing is that it is already looking like it will be more than £6 million.

“Hopefully some of the steps that are being taken in the county council will be able to erode that shortfall.”

She reassured Beaconsfield residents and councillors that the county council is ‘not alone’ in making cuts and said that the town’s parking review will still go ahead.

She said: “We are not alone, it is happening up and down the country and I feel very comforted that Bucks county council, over the last seven years or so that I have worked with it, has been on top of the issue and trying to manage down non-essential expenditure to try and accommodate the pressure.

“We had to go through the spreadsheet and mark off expenditure in red, amber or green depending on whether it was something that had to proceed, much like your parking scheme, which is beyond the point where we could freeze expenditure on it.”

Phase two of the parking review in Beaconsfield began in May this year, looking at the possibility of parking restrictions in Oakdene, Woodside Avenue, Ledborough Wood and Ledborough Lane and Candlemas Mead.

The phase has now been approved by Mark Shaw, cabinet member for transportation and will now move into the implementation process.