In a bid to save money the Tory-run County Council decided several years ago to reduce the number of buildings it operated out of down from 54 to 4 in a programme called ‘The Way We Work’ (TW3). At a meeting in December Liberal Democrats questioned the very unclear one line sentence in the agenda papers referring to this and discovered that this programme had over spent by £2m this year, and is expected to over spend by £2m next year. Every £1m is the equivalent of 1% on council tax.

Lib Dem spokesperson Paul Goggins said: ‘This bombshell had been hidden from a Committee chaired the Chief Executive. It was certainly hidden from a Scrutiny Topic Group, on which I serve.

‘Only a few weeks ago, councillors and the public received a glowing report on the progress of TW3. Now we know that the original estimates were wide of the mark.’

Malcolm Cowan, Lib Dem spokesman for Performance and Resources, added: ‘This is an utter disgrace. Heads must roll.’