Speaking at a meeting of full council on Monday Cllr Galton also called for the council to consider spending the £1.5m windfall – which the council is set to receive as a result of transferring its council housing stock to a private firm – on a one-off community project.

A Mail survey completed by 600 people saw 73 per cent of voters request the money be used as part of a bid to bring a cinema back to Harborough after a 30-year absence.

But council leader Alistair Swatridge says he is determined to balance the books at the district council and that it would be ‘extremely foolish to spend any additional capital at this time’.

Cllr Galton’s comments come one week after the council’s all-Tory executive held a special meeting at which they announced a freeze on ‘uncommitted expenditure’.

At the meeting, it was revealed that the council was facing a funding gap of about £400,000 between its income and expenditure.

An email was also circulated to council staff by chief executive Sue Smith stating that recruitment could only be authorised by directors, banning the stock-piling of items, and putting a halt to training and overtime pay for staff.

Speaking at Monday’s meeting, Cllr Galton said: “I think we’re confusing the message to the public. They’re not going to understand why we’re sitting on such money while taking such draconian measures to cut expenditure.”

However, in his first report to full council since taking over as leader in August, Cllr Swatridge said: “We have seen the initial effect of a tidal wave caused by the biggest banking collapse since World War One, but we are unsure of when and where this wave will make land and where the damage will hit.

“It is because of this uncertainty that I am proposing extreme caution.

“In such a financial climate we can no longer carry over such a deficit and therefore our aim must be to ensure we use all the finances available to us and keep our expenditure to within the resource envelope that we know we have available.

“I get no joy out of this situation, or by proposing reduced resources, and there is certainly no political gain to be had. But we believe it is what the public will expect and I believe only a fool would criticise such a cautious and prudent approach.”