COUNCILLORS in Harrogate have attacked the top-up funding awarded to the local authority as a part of Chancellor Gordon Brown's efforts to curb council tax rises.
They say the award of £60,000 amounts to an average of less than 2p a week for council tax payers in the district.
The announcement came only weeks after news that Harrogate had been given a 2.2 per cent rise in funding from the government, down from last year's three per cent.
Councillor Jim Clark, cabinet member for finance, said: "Already the Government has set up a lose, lose, lose situation for the council and its taxpayers. When the Chancellor stood up in the Commons and said he was helping local tax payers, no one in the Harrogate district expected they would be getting pence when they expected pounds.
"Harrogate Borough Council is now facing difficult decisions because of the rock-bottom settlement by the Government. No one expected a double whammy cash cut from Westminster.
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