Fresh warnings about how the credit crunch is hitting Bristol City Council have been issued by an influential group of councillors.

The resources scrutiny commission is raising serious concerns with the ruling Labour cabinet and its finance chief, Councillor John Bees. It says:

- Capital spending on major projects could be thrown into disarray as the income from land sales slumps

- The council cannot count on council tax collection rates being as high as previous years

- Cash set aside to provide home care or care home places may not be enough as demand rises

- Planned manpower cuts might not feed through to budget savings.

Members of the commission, chaired by Conservative councillor Geoff Gollop, are concerned that arrangements have been made to cushion the effect of the recession now, though "the impact is likely to be longer term".

But Mr Bees said yesterday that the council was not taking on new capital projects – unless they had Government funding attached.

And, he said, the council could end up funding some schemes already planned by borrowing – at currently low interest rates – against the receipts from future land sales.

On council tax, Mr Bees said "we are still predicting" a 98.5 per cent collection rate.

But he warned this year's surplus would be much smaller, about £400,000, compared with the £2-million to £3m ones of recent years.

Cabinet members have been invited to toThursday night's meeting of the Bristol scrutiny commission.