A COUNCILLOR in Monmouthshire has said that the county faces a “huge mountain to climb” to bring its schools out of a collective deficit of £428,000.

Twelve schools have entered the new academic term in the red, with six being monitored on a monthly basis as they aim to balance the books.

It is the first time since 2011/12, when the collective balance was £965,000 in surplus, that schools in the county are in a collective deficit.

Two secondary schools - Monmouth Comprehensive and King Henry VIII Comprehensive School in Abergavenny - are also projected to be in deficits of more than £300,000 each by the end of the 2017/18 academic term.

The report shown to members of the children and young people select committee prompted frustration from Cllr Tudor Thomas, member for Priory ward in Abergavenny.

“That’s a huge mountain to climb to bring that deficit down,” he said.

“This is going to have further, highly negative effects on budgets. I honesty can’t see how so many schools are in deficit - it can’t be bad management by so many schools. Their best clearly isn’t enough.”

Nikki Wellington, finance manager at Monmouthshire County Council, said the situation reflected a broader picture seen across Wales.

Reduced funding from the Welsh Government was said to be one of the major causes for the deficits in Monmouth and King Henry VIII.

Ms Wellington said: “For Monmouth that there was a reduction of £216,000 announced just after new year, that’s 60 per cent of their deficit, and the equivalent of 28 per cent of King Henry’s deficit was the loss of the grant.

“There are some things which are outside of the management capabilities of the school.

“It’s not a place we want to be. What we want to do is allow the schools to recover but maintains standards.”

The committee’s chief officer, Will McLean, reserved praise for Chepstow School which had been in deficit to the tune of around £400,000 four years ago but is now set to be in the black by the end of the next schoolyear.

Cllrs Louise Brown, for Shirenewton, and Cllr Martyn Groucutt, member for Lansdown, both also complimented the school’s financial turnaround.