COUNTY councillors have been accused of selling residents 'false dreams' after failing to spend a fifth of their annual buildings budget.

But the man in charge of the authority's purse strings today warned more projects could face delay because of a shortage of builders.

Latest figures show the county council has only managed to spend £59.683million of its £72.929million capital budget - leaving 19 per cent unspent.

Delays to the refurbishment of Lancashire's care homes - 32 of which were shut to pay for improvements to the remaining 16, plus the costs of building a new home in Preston - have resulted in £8million not being spent on time.

School improvements project also failed to spend £6.5million it was supposed to, while £3.5million earmarked for waste recycling projects also went unspent.

The ruling Labour group has hailed plans to spend £72.1million in the next financial year as 'wonderful news' for residents.

But Lib Dems leader David Whipp said: "Making wild promises on how much is going to be spent simply gets people's hopes up, but then it doesn't happen."

And Tory leader Michael Welsh added: "To underspend by 20 per cent is just letting people down."

Head of finance Coun Tony Martin said: "There is a need to look at how we draw things up but there will always be some slippage.

"A problem at the moment is getting the contractors, there just aren't enough about."