Sefton forecasts a £7.689m overspend and proposes a recruitment freeze. Also on 1 October: Hesketh Park Conservatory, the Esplanade site and garden waste costs.
Sefton Council’s Cabinet meets next Thursday with a forecast overspend of £7.689m on this year’s budget. It is being asked to approve a council-wide recruitment freeze to bring that down.
It is the only council meeting with a published agenda in the next seven days. Several items on it reach into Southport and Formby. (Sefton Council, Cabinet agenda, 1 October 2026)
When and where: 10am, Thursday 1 October, Assembly Hall, Town Hall, Bootle. The meeting is public, apart from two items on exempt appendices.
The budget: £7.689m over, and a hiring freeze
The monthly budget report says the council expects to finish 2026/27 £7.689m over budget, as at the end of August. (Sefton Council, Revenue and Capital Budget Update 2026/27, October Update)
Services are forecast to overspend by £17.989m in total. A £9.3m provision, set aside in February for pressures carried over from last year, covers part of that.
The biggest pressures, according to the report:
- Children’s Social Care: £12.121m over. Of that, £8.8m is on accommodation and support packages and £2.0m on staffing, where agency workers are still filling posts.
- Education Excellence: £2.267m over, from the cost of travel support for pupils, as more education, health and care plans are approved.
- Adult Social Care: £1.876m over. The service must save £5.5m this year and had delivered £1.2m so far, which the report calls “below expectations at this stage”.
- Operational In-House Services: £1.405m over, mainly in bereavement services, the security service and waste and street cleansing.
- Communities: £0.513m over, from the rising cost of temporary accommodation.
The report’s table shows the forecast has moved by £1.868m since the July figures.
Cabinet is asked to approve four remedial steps:
- a recruitment freeze across the council until the end of the financial year, with exceptions for critical posts
- no service’s forecast to get any worse than it is now
- no new spending growth, even where an underspend elsewhere could pay for it
- a full review to find “non-essential spend that could be stopped”
Any overspend left at the year end “will need to be met from General Balances”, the council’s reserves.
There is some better news in the same report. Council tax income is forecast to come in £0.837m above budget. Cabinet is also asked to accept £0.270m of government grant for the Playground Fund.
Hesketh Park Conservatory offered to community groups
The conservatory at Hesketh Park is one of three council buildings in the next round of community asset transfers. Community groups will be able to apply to take them on. (Sefton Council, Community Assets Policy report)
The three buildings in Phase 2 are:
- Hesketh Park Conservatory, Southport (Cambridge ward)
- the former toilet block in Duke Street Park, Formby (Formby East ward)
- the community kitchen in Cambridge Road Adult Education Centre, Waterloo, at the southern end of the borough
Duke Street Park has two former toilet blocks. One is part of a separate padel proposal, and only the other is on offer.
Because of the conservatory’s profile, the council says it has built a dedicated web page covering restoration work, restrictions on use and “the proposed use of legacy funding”. Cabinet is also asked to approve a revised policy, after an evaluation of the first round of three transfers.
The Esplanade park and ride site
Cabinet will be asked to start a competitive search for a partner to develop the former park and ride site on the Esplanade, once linked to the Cove Resort. A sale would likely mean closing and relocating the Eco Centre. We have the full story here.
Garden waste costs rise by about £56,000 a year
Cabinet is asked to award a new five-year contract to treat and compost garden waste. It runs from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2031, shared with the other Liverpool City Region councils. (Sefton Council, Garden Waste Tender report)
The report does not name the preferred bidder. It does set out what the contract costs Sefton:
| 2025/26 | New contract | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate per tonne | £16.55 | £20.00 |
| Cost at last year’s 16,193 tonnes | about £268,000 | about £324,000 |
That is roughly £56,000 more a year, before recycling credits from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority. The credit rate for next year is not yet known. The report covers disposal only, not the collection service.
Ainsdale Neighbourhood Centre
The council is still buying out the leases at Ainsdale Neighbourhood Centre on Sandbrook Way so the site can be redeveloped. Six interests are left to acquire. (Sefton Council, Ainsdale Neighbourhood Centre Equity Loan report)
Terms have been agreed with the owner occupiers of one flat. The report says they cannot afford another home nearby. Cabinet is asked to approve an equity loan to cover the gap between their sale price and the cost of a replacement home. The figures are in an exempt appendix.
If the remaining interests cannot be bought by agreement, the council says it will seek compulsory purchase powers. It set aside £1.3m for the buyouts in 2020.
Also on the agenda
- Families First, the council’s plan for the national reform of family support and children’s safeguarding
- Foster4, keeping Sefton in the regional fostering hub for Cheshire and Merseyside
- Residential rehab, re-tendering placements for people recovering from drug and alcohol dependency
- Agency staff, a two-year contract with Matrix SCM Ltd, which manages agency workers for the city region councils
What it means for you
If approved, the freeze means council vacancies stay unfilled until the end of March unless an executive director and the finance director judge them critical.
If you are part of a group in Southport that could run the Hesketh Park Conservatory, watch the council’s community asset transfer page after 1 October.
You can attend the meeting in Bootle or read every report on the meeting page. For the council services you use most, see our pages on council tax bands and bin collection days.
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