YORK council is looking at an overspend of just over £1 million this year, but bosses say they can pull the accounts back in line.

A report on City of York’s day-to-day spending was presented to the council’s executive on Thursday night, covering the first three months of this financial year.

It showed that council accounts are projected to come in around £1.1 million over budget by April next year, but that is an improvement on finances in previous years. In 2012/13, the projected overspend was as high as £3.7 million at this point in the year.

Finance director Ian Floyd told senior councillors the council faced “challenging times” but added that a projected overspend was to be expected at this point in the year, and could be brought back under control.

He added: “At this early stage we would still expect to come in within our overall budget. A lot of work will take place and we have in fact been in a similar or worse position at a similar stage in recent years.”

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The biggest financial worries at the moment are in the City and Environmental Services department, he added, which is projected to be £964,000 over budget.

However, much of that comes not from over-spending, but from income falling short on things like car parks - particularly St George’s Field where Foss Barrier works are taking up part of the car park. Planning fees are also down £300,000 because the council has not approved any large housing sites, and fines from automatic number plate recognition camera - like those used during the Lendal Bridge closure and on Coppergate - are down by £100,000.

Contingency funds have also grown, after councillors agreed to put money left over from last year’s budget aside in case of emergencies.

A report on the capital budgets - used for one-off investments - was produced at the same time and showed spending there is currently in line to be around £2 million more than expected.

Much of that comes in adult social care, where the overhaul of older people’s homes project has ploughed £981,000 into “enabling works” to get the Burnholme project off the ground, and £600,000 has been spent at Haxby Hall.