If you thought that Kent County Council had managed to avert the possibility of the of declaring bankruptcy, then think again.

The start of the new financial year has placed the authority in a quagmire of debts, deficits and a substantial drawdown from its reserves.

Even as the county council tries to balance its books, it seems problems are building up yet again.

The reason? KCC did indeed sign off on its accounts for 2022-23 on the basis that savings would be delivered and the books would be balanced.

So what is going wrong?

Yes, you are ahead of us: the savings pledged are apparently proving challenging for different directorates, with some departments now saying they won’t be able to achieve the targets set for them.

That in turn has led to the politicians seemingly in a stand-off - with the directorates they are in charge of.

"The messages from this are that the council is in a real pickle..."

Cllr Peter Oakford, KCC’s cabinet member for finance, said in pointed language, that it was ‘unacceptable’ when delivering the most recent update to colleagues.

So, what is to be done? No-one seems to know. The report presented to the Conservative cabinet asked members to ‘note’ the situation; in fact, there were so many things to note you wondered what was the point of meeting at all.

The report setting out just how bad things were invited the cabinet to ‘note’ the projected revenue monitoring position of a £53.7m overspend; to note the projected overspend among schools’ monitoring position of £45.6m; and when they had finished ‘noting’ all that to “consider and note” the progress on the delivery of £41.2m in-year savings.

And lastly “to consider and note the actions being taken to reduce the projected overspend as far as possible.”

The messages from this are that the council is in a real pickle; and that it is fast running out of options, with the exception of slashing services to the bone. (And it may need a bulk buy-in of notebooks.)

The scale of the problem is described in candid terms, saying the projected overspend “presents a serious and significant risk to the council’s financial resilience if it is not addressed.”

Of particular concern is the increase in spending needed for ‘high needs’ children, with finance chiefs reporting the projected deficit on the High Needs budget has increased by £41m from £101m at the end of 2021-22 and is estimated to increase to around £142m by the end of this financial year.

Those figures are pretty eye-watering and have been the subject of intense negotiations with the government - leading to what is known as a “safety valve” agreement with the DfE. This has given the council a five-year breathing space to repay these costs.

All we can really say is that ultimately, it’s all coming from the public purse.

ON one part of the coastline around the English Channel, the authorities are trying to resist would-be migrants arriving at Dover.

On another, coaches, cars and lorries proceed at a snail’s pace to the Port of Dover to catch ferries going the opposite way.

And what unites them but divides them? It’s not Brexit, say the Brexiteers; it’s Brexit say the remainers. Who’s right? Who knows?

But as political paradoxes go, it’s certainly unique.