AN already grim financial future has taken a dramatic turn for the worse for Cheltenham Borough Council.
Finance bosses at the Cheltenham authority had been bracing themselves for a 10 per cent cut from Central Government in 2015/16.
But the borough is now facing a further 17.1 per cent real terms cut in funding in 2015/16 on its already reduced funding for 2014/15.
It comes as details of the latest Spending Review have been released.
And the borough council has admitted that it will now find it increasingly difficult to avoid cutting services in the near future.
Councillor John Rawson (LD, St Peter's), deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for finance, said that, in real terms it will mean having to make further cuts equating to £250,000.
He added: "The Government announced a few years ago that they were making a further cut of 10 per cent in our funding from 2015.
"Now it seems that the real cut will be more like 17 per cent, which is a further loss of about £250,000.
Impact
"The council is working extremely hard to find savings that do not have a major impact on frontline services.
"Since 2010, we have already found £5 million of savings.
"However, the Government is cutting funding so far and so fast that they are going beyond our ability to cope.
"Between 2010 and 2015 we will have lost about £4 million a year in government funding.
"We will of course continue working hard to find efficiency savings and protect services.
"We are talking to neighbouring councils about sharing more services to cut costs, but it will be hard to avoid significant cuts in services in 2015, if not earlier."
Both Tewkesbury borough and Cotswold district councils are facing similar cuts to their funding.
In 2009, the government grant to Cheltenham, worth £8.8 million, made up 53 per cent of its £16.5 million budget.
Meanwhile this year the government grant, worth £5.1 million, makes up 37 per cent of the council's £13.8 million budget.
Councillor Rob Garnham (C, Park), leader of the Conservative group, said: "It is disappointing that the cut is likely to be even higher than the 10 per cent which had been announced because even that was going to be difficult.
"This will be even more of a challenge and we have to make sure that we are really on the ball about saving money wherever we can."