COUNTY council bosses have taken back control of youth and community service spending after blaming officers for a £560,000 budget blunder.

The move came as Conservative leader Michael Welsh said giving the service, which has an annual budget of more than £10million, more money would be like "giving a drunk an extra bottle of whisky".

Leader of the council Hazel Harding said "extremely serious action" was needed to bring the service's spending back under control.

Coun Harding spoke after it was revealed the youth and community team, which manages its own budget, had put services at risk.

A full investigation into the overspend has been delayed because key members of staff have been on long-term sickness absence.

The money was said to have been spent on services to young people and staffing costs, which accounted for more than 70 per cent of the budget.

Defending the county council's track record on youth services, Coun Harding told a meeting of the council's cabinet: "I only wish the management of the budget was the same as the service which enables young people to learn about their roles as citizens."

The move means all spending by the youth and community service will have to be authorised in advance by the county council's head of finance, in conjunction with senior education officers. The overspend relates to spending for the 2003/04 financial year. However, forecasts show the figure could rise to £800,000 by the end of 2005.

To safeguard services like the Youth Parliament, set up to encourage young people to take part in politics, the council will also introduce measures to bring the budget under control.

Laying the blame for the financial fiasco firmly at the door of the officers who run the department, County Coun Tony Martin, cabinet member for resources, said: "If they could not run services from those resources they should have made a report but, at no stage, did that report come along. We are taking control away from them so we can get to the bottom of what happened."

Liberal Democrat leader County Coun David Whipp said: "There has been a lack of political management and a lack of grip by members of the cabinet."

Coun Harding added: "We will take full responsibility. I expect officers to take responsibility for their budget and work within it. The fact that they failed means we need to look again at how financial monitoring has been carried out.

"The county council has always been noted for its good financial management and we are extremely disappointed that we have had to take this action. However, I am confident that the overspend can be absorbed within the education and cultural services budgets and that, under the guidance of our financial experts, management of the youth and community service finances will become as efficient as our other services."