Brighton: City's £20m cuts shock

Town hall chiefs are being forced to consider more than £20 million of cuts to services to avoid council tax rises of up to 30 per cent over the next four years - reports The Argus.

Brighton and Hove City Council is already considering slashing the budgets for street cleaning and social services after revealing it needed to claw back £3 million of debt accrued so far this financial year.

But the authority is predicting a freeze in Government funding - meaning huge pressures on every department's budget.

The news led campaigners last night to call for a root-and-branch review of local government funding.

To avoid slashing services, council tax would have to increase by 4.9% in April next year, 8%the year after, then 7% in 2009/10 and 6% in 2010/11.

This would result in the average Band D household paying an extra £400 a year by April 2010, or £1,661 in total.

But ministers limit council tax increases to 5% and a council spokesman said it did not plan to go beyond the cap - meaning savings of more than £20 million will be needed.

Before the end of the financial year, the council is set to close a home for five children with autism, stop the night-time street cleaning service and cut just under £1 million from adult social services, including scores of council employees not being replaced when they leave.

Council leader Simon Burgess also warned of job losses.

Green councillor Keith Taylor said he would be pushing for charities and not-for-profit organisations to take on more of the council's work.

He said: "We cannot carry on delivering the same for less. It is impossible to carry on making cuts."