COUNCILS across the North-East gave mixed reactions to a promise of extra government money for local authorities.

Chancellor Gordon Brown announced on Wednesday that £403m of extra money would be distributed to local authorities in an attempt to avoid a repeat of recent large council tax rises.

However, it has emerged that only £14m of the hand-out, which is calculated using a formula based on population, will be distributed to North-East councils.

While all the authorities have welcomed the extra money, many feel it is not enough to deal with the costs councils face.

Newcastle City Council received an extra £1.415m, but civic officials believe the population may have been miscalculated by as many as 4,500 people.

Council leader Tony Flynn said: "We welcome the increase, it's proof that the Government has listened to our representations. However, it's still less than the average increase and not enough to tackle the significant cost pressures the council faces."

This view was echoed by Northumberland County Council, which received a one per cent increase.

A spokesman said: "£2m doesn't go very far and we will be continuing our fight for a fairer deal for Northumberland. We're not sure why we have got such a small amount, but it's not for want of pressing the Government."

At Hartlepool Borough Council, a £500,000 increase was welcomed, but a spokesman added: "This only goes part of the way to assisting the initial disappointing grant allocation."

Teesdale District Council, the smallest authority in the country, only received an extra £23,000.

Susan Reay, director of corporate services, said: "£23,000 doesn't go very far and it's a poor settlement in general for all district councils."

However, many authorities welcomed the extra cash.

Councillor Glyn Nightingale, cabinet member for corporate resources at Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said: "This will make a big difference in terms of the council tax. We were expecting to put council tax up about five per cent and anything that helps is to be welcomed."

An Easington District Council spokesman said: "There's a gap between what the Government provides and what we need, and this will claw some of that back. Clearly, we're always trying to cap council tax increases to inflationary levels."

Paul Wildsmith, director of corporate services at Darlington Borough Council, said: "It's obviously good news. The increase on the original settlement goes towards helping us achieve our targets for the forthcoming year."