CASH-strapped Herefordshire Council accidentally spent £20,000 by overpaying staff in the past year.

The payroll errors resulted in the local authority mistakenly giving 16 members of staff too much money.

On one occasion, an extra £5,525 was added to the bank account of an employee by mistake, although this was later repaid.

Other amounts which have accidentally been added to the staff's wages include £3,652 and £1,861.

The mistakes occurred between November 1 last year and the same date this year.

In total, £22,085 has been overpaid by Herefordshire Council, with the authority saying the errors happened when their secondment ended.

Half of the 16 payments have since been repaid.

"We are aware that a small number of staff were over paid when their secondment position ended," said a council spokesperson.

"The council has implemented policy changes to make sure all secondments are immediately concluded on its payroll system using a new automated process."

The results were obtained following a Freedom of Information request to Herefordshire Council by the Hereford Times.

Last month, this paper reported the borrowing debt owed on Herefordshire Council’s capital programme could top £200 million within the next four years.

A quarter of the council’s assets are now financed by debt with the repayment rate currently £10 million a year.

In June, the Hereford Times reported the council’s total external debt to be around £195 million as its use of short term “ends meet” loans from other authorities continues.

The council has already been warned of its exposure to “significant risk” over interest rate movements on both its borrowings and investments.

Meanwhile, it has also been revealed the council has spent a total of almost £6,000 on training days for its 58 county councillors in the same timeframe as the overpayments.