By Victoria Brenan

Last updated at 12:37, Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Services are set to be hit as Cumbria County Council faces up to finding more than £20 million of savings.

At a meeting, the council’s cabinet heard that if the council chooses to accept a grant to freeze council tax, the amount of savings it has to find will rise to £24.5m, following government cuts.

However if the council chooses not to accept the grant and increase the tax precept by 1.9 per cent it will need to find £22.5m in cuts.

Leader of the council, Councillor Eddie Martin, said: “We will be saving over £130m a year by 2015/16. You can’t cut by that amount without seeing changes on the ground.

“We have done remarkably well in retaining frontline services. Finding savings in the future is going to be increasingly problematic and it will impact on frontline services.”

A budget proposal will be presented next month.

First published at 12:04, Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk