MP takes Notts funding crisis to Parliament

Despite having already slashed £212m from its bill since 2010, the council faced reducing its annual spending by another £62m over the next three years.

However, the Government grant for the council services for 2016/17 was £9m worse than anticipated, meaning it now has to find savings of £71m.

Mr Meale has raised the issue in Parliament after council leader, Councillor Alan Rhodes, asked for the help of Nottinghamshire’s MPs.

He said he was ‘deeply concerned’ at the grant settlement, which makes up the majority of the council’s budget, and threatens to jeopardise council services across the county.

He said the cuts were: “Extremely unfair, unjust and disproportionate in the council’s case as little recognition has been given to its much higher proportion of age population in the country, the loss of traditional industries and citizens higher social care needs.”

He urged the Government to “desist from its planned local formula and work with the authority in a meaningful way to help it deliver the services it is charged to provide”.

Coun Rhodes said that because of the huge deficit in Government grants, the council is likely to be left with no choice other than to take up the option of a social care levy, offered by the Government - equivalent to a 2 perc ent increase in council tax - to protect services for the elderly and disabled as far as possible.

This would be in addition to a council tax increase of 1.99 per cent, agreed as part of the discussions involving all main political groups at the county council.

Coun Rhodes said: “The current settlement threatens the very existence of many of our services.

“I am alarmed at the disconnect between central and local government, with decisions being taken at a national level with seemingly little or no understanding of their impact on normal people.”