We all know that there must be a general election before next June andwhichever party wins, the financial situation in which we find ourselveswill be very difficult. This will be particularly true in local government.Councils are likely to receive less from central government and the publicwill be understandably opposed to further increases in council tax. At a time when councils should be getting themselves into shape to deal withtough times ahead, it is particularly distressing the Lib Dem run ValeDistrict Council is making matters worse for itself. It emerged over thesummer that accounting errors have left the council in a dire financialposition. People may recall that last year's budget was a very tight affair anyway,with many services struggling to survive, yet it now appears that thecouncil's reserves were overstated by more than £700,000. This means thatwithout remedial action the reserves going into next year will be less thanthe price of the average terrace house in the district. This is on top of a further accounting error of £260,000 caused by doublecounting money from central government. This is not quite a crisis, but it is certainly not good news. I am happy towork with anyone to improve the council's finances, but it will not be easyto balance the books in difficult economic times. The Lib Dems at the Valehave not just overspent on public money, but they have also overspent their credibility.