North West Leicestershire District Council expects to have to deal with a shortfall of £900,000 this year due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the authority says it will cope - and absorb the six-figure hit to its finances.

In fact, the district council says that this is illustrated by its more to freeze its portion of the Council Tax earlier this year.

The £900k figure was revealed in a letter to Ashby de la Zouch Town Council in response for its request for more financial help following lockdown.

Bev Smith, Chief Executive of North West Leicestershire District Council, wrote to the Town council explaining that its own finances had been 'severely affected' and that 'current net impacts will be around £900k'.

The letter added: "As a result, we are not in a position to provide further support to parish and town councils."

However, Ashby de la Zouch Town Council had received £17,000 from the district council during last year's lockdown.

The Chief Executive added in statement to Coalville Nub News: "All councils have experienced a challenging year when it comes to finance – at North West Leicestershire we've established several new services to support the most vulnerable in the community, including our community hub.

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"We've needed extra staff to promptly administer the multitude of Government grant schemes to businesses and to lend advice and support to individuals and businesses that have been struggling.

"Our income is also significantly down from areas like car parking and leisure services as a direct result of Covid-19.

 "Thankfully, as a result of many years of sound financial planning and spending our money wisely, the district council is in a good position to absorb this expense.

"The clearest evidence of this is that just last month we were able to freeze our portion of the council tax bill to ensure that the cost of Covid-19 wasn't being simply passed back to residents."