A NEW committee has been created at Wyre Forest District Council in response to a warning the authority could run out of money to cover budget gaps.

The 11-member strategic review committee, set up during a full council meeting on Wednesday and chaired by Conservative Stephen Clee, will oversee the council’s financial plans and advise on what it can and cannot afford to do.

It follows chief executive Ian Miller’s stark warning last week the authority’s financial reserves could run dry in 2016 if current spending patterns did not change.

Council leader John Campion said: “We have got an underlying financial issue we need to address and that needs to be bigger than the normal budget cycle we have and it needs to start earlier.”

One of the committee’s jobs is to recommend to cabinet priorities, objectives and financial strategies for the council’s corporate plan - a document which sets out how Wyre Forest provides services.

“Our corporate plan is a very important document that shapes how we work and what we stand for. We will use it to change our financial direction and work out what we have got the money for and what we have not and we have now got a committee to do that,” Mr Campion added.

The move means the size of the overview and scrutiny committee will be reduced from 20 members to 12 because it will no longer do work being undertaken by the strategic review committee.

Labour put forward councillor Nigel Knowles for chairman, arguing it was “a scrutiny committee by any other name” and should be chaired by an opposition group member but Mr Clee was elected by a majority.

Independent Community and Health Concern councillor Liz Davies is vice-chairman.