Greater Manchester’s councils are facing a ‘dire’ £400m shortfall even after a second Covid bailout to town halls across the country, according to local leaders.
At the same time Metrolink is still looking at a £30m loss by the end of the financial year as a result of lost passenger numbers and social distancing.
Trafford’s Labour chief labelled his council’s financial situation ‘really, really scary’ and warned that closing all the borough’s libraries and axing 10pc of staff would still save less than a third of the amount it needed to find.
All ten council leaders, including Bolton’s Conservative boss David Greenhalgh, have agreed to lobby the government for more funding and to hold an emergency meeting on the issue next month.