Further reductions of services to balance the county council’s budget have been “exhausted”.

Flintshire Council’s remaining budget gap will be bridged through “new or increased sources of income, the prudent use of reserves and balances, and Council Tax setting.”

A report to members ahead of the full-member meeting on Tuesday detailed how no further reductions in services would be considered and this had been accepted by the authority's cabinet and overview and scrutiny committees.

After working through its first two budget setting stages, Flintshire Council has now entered the third and final part ahead of finalising a budget on February 20.

A report by Colin Everett, chief exective, and Gary Ferguson, corporate finance manager, said it would be “the most challenging”.

The report detailed how stage one budget proposals of £3m approved cuts by councillors reduced the forecast budget gap from £13.6m to £10.6m.

The final local government settlement, while still providing a reduction in the allocation to Flintshire, an uplift in funding improved the forecast position by £1m and further reduced the working gap to £9.6m.

The value of the stage two options is in the range of £7.6m to £9m, subject to the agreement of Welsh Government and other parties, and that the level of Council Tax to be charged for 2018/19 will not be determined until February.

Three requests for support for social care from Welsh Government were also included in the stage two proposals.

Final balancing options will be considered at the council meeting on February 20 with the advice and recommendations of cabinet which will meet prior to that meeting.

Cabinet is to consider the feedback on car parking charges and school funding and make a recommendation to full council on that date.

Flintshire has limited useable reserves of around £4.2m and a number of earmarked reserves which include some service balances carried forward to fund specific expenditure in year, and some reserves with terms and conditions attached to them which limit their use.

Work is underway to review all earmarked reserves and to challenge those that have not been used within the time frame originally specified.

Any use of reserves to balance the 2018/19 budget would need to be repaid in a later year.

The budget setting process will be debated by members at County Hall, Mold, on Tuesday.