SHOCKED Worcestershire County Council bosses are faced with more cutbacks on services after hearing the grant from central government is to be slashed by £320,000 over the next two years.

A delegation from the council visited Westminster last month to lobby for additional funding of £3.5m but now bemused leaders are facing further cutbacks.

The Government has cut the county council grant £20,000 this year and £300,000 for 2007. No reason has been given for the reduction and there is no appeal procedure.

The authority had hoped for added funding on top of its £69m grant this year to fill a £3.5m black hole in council finances.

Authority leaders now face the grim reality of making budget cuts of £3.5m over the next year in order to make ends meet.

Cabinet member for finance Coun Adrian Hardman said: "We are all extremely gloomy and disappointed with the outcome. Morale has taken a big dip.

"To think we went down to London to ask for more money. It was an afternoon's work wasted, to be honest."

Cutbacks will include £1.4m on the road maintenance budget for the next year. As outlined in the Worcester News on Saturday, the finances will mean a non-replacement policy for staff working in children's services to save £300,000.

Social care staff will now have to go without office space, instead having to work with laptops on location to save the council a further £600,000.

It will put less waste of landfill sites, reduce money on advertising and dramatically scale down amounts spend on stationery and taxi firms to save another £1.2m.

The original grant allocation was branded as "ridiculous" by the authority. It will now have to make an extra £20,000 savings this year, as well as save an extra £300,000 in 2007.