Less money from shop rentals and car parking fees has left East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) staring at a £1.75 million blackhole in its finances – with 20 staff now facing the risk of redundancy.

A 3.5-hour full council meeting descended into heated debate as members probed what had gone wrong and whether they should change processes.

After spotting the projected blackhole of £1.75 million, the council has pulled £2.5 million from reserves to cover costs and future redundancies.

The lion’s share of the blackhole is because of less income than expected, including £900,000 from the commercial property portfolio, which includes shops, and £400,000 from parking fees. There are also overspends of £135,000 in legal services and £150,000 in planning services and the council has also made £165,000 less in savings than planned.

Other reasons include recruitment difficulties and delays in moving from the CAPITA IT contract, according to council documents.

Councillor Emily Young (Lib Dem, Alton Westbrooke) said 20 council employees could be made redundant to save money. The administration council members and council officer repeatedly said there is no current deficit and blackhole of debt. 

Council officer Matthew Tiller said the council was revolutionary with its reporting process but the Liberal Democrats’ motion asked for changes to the financial reporting.

As the Conservative and Whitehill and Bordon Community administration and opposition councillors clashed over changes. Leader Councillor Richard Millard (Headley) said it was “quite a sad evening” as he thought the motion was damaging and preferred to see a positive, proactive motion from the opposition.

Liberal Democrats councillor David Podger (Petersfield St Peter’s), who chairs the overview and scrutiny committee backed the motion.

Fellow committee member Councillor Elaine Woodard, who proposed the motion, said there wasn’t enough time to read all the information and process answers to questions.