THE region's biggest local authority is to lobby MPs and ministers after being awarded one of the country's lowest spending increases.

Labour-controlled Durham County Council, which employs 16,000 people and spends about £500m a year, will get a 5.7 per cent increase in its standard spending assessment (SSA) next financial year.

Shire counties are getting an average of 6.2 per cent, with the highest rises, 7.1 per cent, going to affluent Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and Lincolnshire.

Council tax payers willhave to pay an extra 5.2 per cent, well above inflation, for services such as education and social services.

The county council's portion of the council tax bill is the largest, and further increases could be levied by the police and district councils.

Last year, the council, which covers Prime Minister Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency, received the smallest SSA increase, 2.8 per cent.

Treasurer John Kirkby told yesterday's executive committee: "The fire service increase of 1.2 per cent is extremely disappointing and is clearly insufficient considering that the recent firefighters' pay award was settled at 3.9 per cent."

He said the council had been "adversely affected" by the Government's decision to switch funding of post-16 education from county councils to the recently-established Learning and Skills Councils.

The Government was proposing to remove £12.6m from the authority's SSA and give the Learning and Skills Council a sum greater than the council was spending on post-16 education.

"The shortfall will have to be made up from within the education budget," said Mr Kirby

Former deputy leader Bob Pendlebury said: "County Durham and Darlington Fire Authority has been commended for the steps it has taken to educate young people and present the dangers of fire. The settlement means they will have to terminate this education.

"The consequences, inevitably, will be that incidences of fire will increase. It doesn't make sense.