Bath and North East Somerset Council's reserves have increased by more than £10m over the past council term despite Covid and financial pressures, a top councillor has said.

The council now has about £54m in its reserves, the funds it holds to ensure it can withstand financial shocks, a council officer said at a scrutiny meeting on Monday.

Richard Samuel, the council's cabinet member for resources, told councillors: ""If I have had any approach over the last few years it has been to rebuild the level of reserves to a good level. They had fallen by £10m over the previous term. They have now risen by that – by over £10m.

"So we are in a stronger position. We are certainly in a stronger position than many councils. But I would absolutely not be prepared to go down the road that says let's spend some of those reserves to soften the pressures we've got next year."

Winston Duguid, a fellow Liberal Democrat councillor, said: "So just to clarify that during this administration, you have actually built the reserves from that which you inherited? In the time of Covid and crisis and everything?"

Mr Samuel answered: "Yes, they have gone up."

The growth was funded by putting money left over from underspends into the reserves. The increase has been in "earmarked" reserves, funds held for particular areas of spending, with general reserves remaining at about the same level.

Mr Samuel said: "Where we have had underspends, instead of spending them we have saved them. We have put them to one side in anticipation that we may have to use them, and we have had to use them. […] The social care reserve has been drawn on this year necessarily, because of the pressures that those services are facing."

"So I'm afraid it's a bit like management of any other budget. You put money aside for a rainy day and that's what we've done. And it's certainly raining at the moment."

Mr Samuel added that he felt reserves should only be spent when there was an unavoidable issue or when they could be invested to bring costs down.

He said: "You've got to hang on to your reserves because, in the current environment, with very little help from anywhere, you have to really protect your own financial position. And the reserves have enabled us, over the last three years to weather what has been a pretty difficult three years"

The current Liberal Democrat administration was elected in 2019. The next council elections will be held on May 4, 2023.