SOUTH Lakeland District Council's strained purse strings are to be pulled even tighter with the authority facing the prospect of having to find a further £900,000 in savings, reports Luke Dicicco The under-pressure council which last month launched a three-year plan to find £2 million in efficiency savings in order to sustain current levels of service will now have to identify a further £900,000 in savings before the next financial year to stay within Government limits for council tax increases.

The need for further savings, which could be met with some service cuts, became apparent this week after the Government announced SLDC's provisional Revenue Support Grant settlement for 2006/7.

The council was awarded £6.486 million a three per cent rise on last year's figure, but the lowest awarded to Cumbria's local authorities.

Council leader Colin Hodgson said the grant was disappointing in light of the Government's pledge to prevent councils trying to raise council tax above five per cent.

"Realistically, it is the sort of figure we were expecting as it continues a trend of unfavourable settlements for South Lakeland," he said.

"We'll have to work doubly hard to balance the budget."

Mr Hodgson also painted a gloomy picture for 2007/8, when the authority was set to receive an even lower increase of just 2.7 per cent.

The council's finance director, Jack Jones, said if council tax rose by 4.5 per cent, then savings of £900,000 would need to be made.

He said meeting the shortfall in Government funding solely through council tax would result in a rise of 18 per cent.

He confirmed the £900,000 in savings was additional to the £2 million efficiency savings which included the threat of redundancies on top of the possibility of service cuts and the £270,000 overspend in providing services for 2005/6.

Mr Jones said the grant from Government did not take into account a national three per cent council staff pay rise and a two-and-a-half per cent rise in pension costs.

"We are not alone by any means, most authorities are finding this problematic," he said.

Tough times have also been predicted at Cumbria County Council, which was awarded a provisional RSG settlement of £105.7 million a 3.3 per cent increase on last year.

Although the council is awaiting news of £30 million worth of funding grants to help deliver services, the threat of Government capping is expected to result in service cuts and efficiency savings.

The authority's cabinet is to meet on December 20 to draw up a draft budget and launch a public consultation.

Meanwhile, Eden District Council said its provisional RSG was neutral after budgeting for a five per cent council tax increase. The actual rise will be decided in January.

Cumbria police says it is currently crunching numbers before it makes any response to its £64.1 million provisional grant a 3.7 per cent increase on last year.

All councils have until the New Year to respond to the Government about their provisional grants.