OPPOSITION councillors have accused senior Tories of borrowing too much over the past five years after figures revealed debts of £218.5million.

Next year Southend Council’s outstanding loans are projected to reach the huge sum, which is about four times bigger than eight years ago.

The interest alone on the loans comes to £11.2million, up from £8.3million last year, which the council’s Independent group says amounts to 16 per cent of the collected council tax.

But the Tory council leader and senior officers say borrowing is well under control and lower in comparison to many other councils of a similar size.

Independent councillor Ron Woodley said the outstanding loans in 2001 stood at just £51.5million and £63million in 2002.

He said: “They’ve borrowed so much money that 16 per cent of the collected council tax has to go out on interest. It’s an enormous amount and is too high.

“You can only spend what you can afford, but they’ve mortgaged our children’s and our grandchildren’s generations.

“They’ve done exactly the same as what they criticised the last Labour government of doing.”

The council borrows money for one-off major projects, such as refurbishing the pier or revamping Prittlewell Priory.

But Tory council leader, Nigel Holdcroft, said the council had a careful strategy in place.

He said: “Unavoidably, our borrowing levels are slightly higher than would be the case because we haven’t been selling the assets earmarked for disposal because of the state of the market.

“We aren’t prepared to under-sell them.

“Interest rates are low at the moment, so you get a better deal by borrowing short term and not selling the assets until their value improves.”