A leading councillor has come under fire after admitting Coventry City Council needed windfalls from Birmingham Airport and Coventry and Solihull Waste Disposal Company to claw back a deficit at the end of the last financial year. Cllr Richard Brown, Labour ’s cabinet member for strategic finance and resources, told this week’s full council meeting that the timely cash boost meant that £1.8m could be moved to the council’s reserves and he thanked everyone for what he called an amazing team effort to balance the books.

He explained: “One of the main reasons for this was that our basket of varied commercial investments paid off with an extra £6.5m above what was expected. It is no accident and reflects the soundness and strength of our commercial investment strategy yielding some

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