by political editor Paul Francis

pfrancis@thekmgroup.co.uk

Kent councils are being urged to use "rainy day" money to cushion the impact of budget cuts next year - after figures showed that together they are holding £222m in reserves.

Local government minister Eric Pickles says councils should not be "turning town hall vaults into Fort Knox" and now was the time to tap into unused funds.

But the suggestion has been given short shrift by some authorities, who say much of the money they are holding is already earmarked for particular schemes.

There is also irritation at Mr Pickles’ intervention, with some seeing it as a ploy to divert attention away from the government’s impending announcement on next year’s level of council funding.

Kent County Council has £105.5m in total reserves, representing 5.3 per cent of its budget. Finance chiefs said while they were not ruling out the idea of using reserves, much of the money was already committed or being kept aside to deal with spending pressures.

The council is anticipating a shortfall of £340m over the next four years as the government’s austerity drive gets under way. It has already used some money to absorb part of a £15m package of cuts it was forced to implement to this year’s budget.

Cllr John Simmonds (Con), cabinet member for finance, said: "We will consider using reserves if necessary but we have to keep a prudent level and I do not want to empty the bank. We are not keeping this money unnecessarily. It is sensible to look at what we’ve got but until we know the outcome of the [government’s] Comprehensive Spending Review, I am not going to spend money from contingencies."

Of the £105m, about £33m was not earmarked for particular projects or dealing with pressures such as bad weather and the costs of capital building, he added.

At £18.6m, Tonbridge and Malling council has the highest level of reserves in relation to its revenue budget of £21.5m.

In a statement, chief executive David Hughes said: "The majority of our reserves are from disposals of assets and are used for capital expenditure, including renewal of essential IT infrastructure, and not to support revenue expenditure."

Mr Pickles said: "These untapped funds exist to ensure councils can respond to unexpected situations like the pressing need to tackle the nation’s unprecedented levels of debt."