Shropshire Council finances: How bad it is and how we got here
When the Lib Dems swept to Shropshire Council election victory in the May sunshine there was optimism over a new dawn for the authority.
While that positivity still remains from the fledgling administration, the spectre of the authority's financial situation threatens to become a millstone around its neck.
This week has seen the council going to the Government with an 'urgent' request for financial support.
The request - which amounts to around £64m - is required to stave off the threat of the council equivalent of bankruptcy, the issuing of a Section 114 notice.
The consequences of Shropshire Council declaring a Section 114 notice would be significant. It would see government-appointed commissioners effectively parachuted in to run the council, with decisions taken solely to meet budgetary targets.
For a number of services currently provided by the council there would be difficult consequences, with all those outside of the authority's legal duty likely to be in the firing line.
The question many will ask is why the situation has deteriorated so rapidly since the Lib Dems took over.
One of the answers is that this has been coming for a long time, and whichever administration took over in May would have found itself wrestling with the same issues.
