Three months into a financial year which started with council tax increases and closures of everything from libraries to day care centres, Barnet Council looks set to make further service cuts.

Savings of £1.4m must be found over the course of the year in a bid to recoup some of the £2m the council has already overspent in the first three months of this financial year. Labour councillors are warning that further closures or redundancies should be expected.

The report, disclosed at the cabinet resources committee last Wednesday (July 28), identified almost £500,000 in cuts that can already be made.

Home care for the elderly will lose £50,000; the Barbara Langstone House homeless hostel in North Finchley will not receive a maintenance budget of £350,000; and the council's licensing committees will have £59,000 cut from their budgets.

But an extra £1.4m must be found, and Councillor Danish Chopra, Labour member for resources, believes this will come from services being axed.

"It means a library will close, it means we are going to have another Springwood a day care centre for the elderly which closed earlier this year closing, or it could mean hundreds of jobs losses," he said.

"We were all promised last year that the £10m overspend wouldn't happen again, but within just three months the Conservatives have blown another two million, with more cuts on the way."

Councillor Mike Freer, cabinet member for value, pointed to how savings of that order are easy to make in a £600 million budget.