THE complexities of local government finance are not easy to fathom.

But one aspect became clear this week, South Lakeland council has almost £600,000 less to spend next year than it thought it had.

Worse still, it needs to put by another £ 200,000 for what it calls natural growth.

In reality, this means money it will be told to spend by the Government and other obligations.

This will include £150,000 in concessionary fares for pensioners and others, which Whitehall is instructing local authorities to implement, and about £27,500 for funds it will have to find to match lottery grants to local organisations.

Where the council finds all this money is hard to say.

There is hardly a corner of the district which will escape the axe.

Top of the queue, predictably, is putting up council tax bills by a pound more than the 4.5% increase already envisaged.

That won't win the council many friends.

There's the possibility of delaying a kerbside recycling scheme by a year.

That probably won't cause too much pain, even if it is uncomfortable for a council committed to sustainability.

There are a couple of toilets in Kendal and Coniston that could be sold off.

That assumes anyone would want to buy them.

More attractive is farm land at Hawkshead, Bardsea and Windermere and a sheltered housing site at Ulverston.

But there is no guarantee that they will raise the sort of funds the council so desperately needs.

Reducing grants to improve private houses and delaying setting aside money for potential land drainage and industrial workshop schemes, will avoid an outcry, but prove unpopular with individuals and organisations hoping to take advantage of these financial leg-ups.

A cut of 60 per cent in grants for historic building repairs, disabled access and environmental improvements seems more draconian and will lead to a temptation to put off forever measures designed to improve the quality of life.

Not least of the potential victims is hard-pressed Kirkland in Kendal, where there have been much-trumpeted proposals to revitalise an area suffering from a shift in the commercial centre of the town to the north.

There is some hope that cuts can be avoided if more money can be made out of car parks and other revenue earners.

But it was the poor performance of these which partly led to the shortfall in the first place.

Any calculations on increased revenue also has to take into account a further drop in the number of people using their services.

But tough decisions do have to be made.

No committee of the council will want to give up a pet project.

There is already talk of delegations to London.

Certainly the choices seem stark and none of the solutions offered so far will be popular.

It does seem ironic that only last week the council was starting to spend £50,000 it has put by to recruit two new senior officers.

By the time the interviews have been held, the appointments made, and other senior officers' wages made up to maintain parity, there won't be much change out of £200,000.

Perhaps this saving will be proposed by the time deliberations have finished towards the end of February.

After all, as director of finance Jack Jones pointed out: "It's about living within our means - we can't afford everything."

Quite.