Balancing the budget By far the biggest challenge for St Helens Borough Council in 2020 will be to close a projected £20.4 million funding gap so it can deliver a balanced budget. Senior Labour politicians have been working on budget proposals – described by council leader David Baines as “drastic” – for several months now. The council had originally been developing an emergency budget in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw all of its services come under review. This work has carried into next year, partly due to emergency measures taken at the start of the pandemic and additional government funding. Cllr Baines warned in November that libraries, leisure services, children’s centres, waste services and highways maintenance are all under threat.