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A council has revealed potential dangers in delivering services to its residents over the next 12 months as new action plans have been unveiled.
Gravesham Borough Council (GBC) faces major financial challenges from the pandemic as the local authority experiences losses in key income streams, such as council tax, business rates and car parking.
Senior council officials have revealed new proposals to minimise the effects of coronavirus and protect services from unplanned cuts during this decade, such as bin collections, parking and housing.
Lisa Nyon, Gravesham council's assistant director for corporate services, has published a sobering report ahead of a full council meeting next week.
In her dossier, she says: "During this last year additional risks have come to the fore due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
"It is recognised that this will continue to bring uncertainty over the coming years and poses ongoing risk to both long-term financial resilience and delivery of services."
Other concerns raised include insufficient resources, cyberattacks resulting in data breach or corruption of data, Brexit and viability of £20million property investments.
A series of action plans have been created to reduce the impact of Covid on Gravesham residents, including working closely with other local authorities and improving information sharing between council departments.
Progress made in response to each risk will be monitored every three months.
It comes less than two months after it was revealed that 10 local authorities in Kent have taken out more than £35m from reserves to deal with a deficit.
Under this, Gravesham council has relied on £2m from its reserves, leaving around £9.2m in a general contingency fund.
Since 2010, the local authority has experienced "sustained" cuts to its funding streams while demand for key services have risen.
The Gravesham council report adds: "Income lines may take a significant time to recover to pre-Covid levels.
"There also remains great uncertainty around the way in which local government will be funded in future years, making longer term planning extremely challenging."
Gravesham borough councillors will publicly debate the risk register at a virtual meeting on Tuesday from 7.30pm. You can tune in via www.youtube.com/graveshamtv
