A COUNCIL boss has said local authority budgets are now at breaking point and have damaged communities.

Deputy leader of Colchester Council, Tim Young (Lab), is supporting a national Breaking Point Campaign, recognising the impact austerity has had on the town.

Plans to cut a further £1.3 billion of council budgets over the next year were announced by the Government during the spring budget statement.

Mr Young is now proposing a motion which will be put before councillors at a full council meeting on October 31.

Colchester Council received a Revenue Support Grant of £10.9 million from Government in 2010/11.

This year the council will be getting less than £1 million.

Next year there will be no Government funding at all for councils.

David King, councillor responsible for resources, says it means the council will ask for its share of the council tax to be raised by the maximum it is allowed, 3 per cent, when it sets its precept in February.

Mr Young said: “Conservative cuts mean councils have lost 60p out of every £1 that the last Labour government was spending on local government in 2010.

“Councils had to spend an extra £800 million last year to meet the demand on vital services to protect children.

“With an ageing population and growing demand adult social care faces a gap of £3.5 billion.”

The Breaking Point campaign asks for next year’s cuts to be reversed, and asks for £2 billion to be invested in children’s services and another £2 billion in adult social care to stop them from collapsing.

Lib Dem Mr King added: “I am broadly supportive of the motion as we need to have a national discussion but our local council has managed exceptionally well to keep maintaining services.

“Although it’s getting tighter and tighter residents need to understand we have got every hope of continuing to deliver.”

As part of his motion Mr Young has asked leader of the council, Mark Cory (Lib Dem) to write to Prime Minister Theresa May and others setting out the funding pressures faced by the council.

Mr Cory said: “The Lib Dems have yet to discuss this fully but I support the general gist of the motion.

“If we take the party politics out and talk about the cross-party consensus that local government is being under funded to breaking point, we can all agree on that.”

For Essex County Council, the provisional settlement announced in December will confirm funding for next year.

The county council signed up to a four year settlement from Government, and 2019/20 is the last year of that four year deal.

It is expecting to receive £18 million in revenue support grant.