More than £1million of cuts and savings will have to be made as the council calculates the full cost of fighting Covid-19 as it “re-profiles” its revenue budget for 2020-21.

Director of resources Jon Haswell said on Tuesday (June 30) that there had been a “high level financial impact” on the local authority between march and June with an increase of £8.5million costs revenue.

This includes £3.7million of increased expenditure and £3.5million of lost income which is likely to be funded by Welsh Government, Mr Haswell told members of the corporate overview and scrutiny committee.

However, a £1.3million of “cost reduction slippage” would not be funded and would need to be reidentified in the budget.

Some savings had already been identified, said Mr Haswell with work on a “re-profile revenue budget review” underway.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s gold command and organisational recovery cell, which includes the council leader, cabinet member finance and member for transformation, has agreed a prioritisation for restoration of services plan.

This has given core services “priority status” said Mr Haswell, and includes the reopening of schools, catering and transport, social care, contact tracing and waste collection and disposal.

Council Chairman Dr Simon Hancock said: “Covid-19 has clearly had a very significant impact on the council's budget and the authority is working hard to identify cost reductions and savings. I am very confident that these will be achieved while protecting front-line, core services.”