TWO of the region’s councils are to cut their budgets by nearly £200m, as the fallout of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review hits home.

Durham County Council is poised to agree £85m of savings, while Newcastle City Council wants to reduce spending by £110m.

Both reductions will be over four years and could hit services across the board, from bus routes and libraries to care for the elderly.

Thousands of jobs are expected to be lost, with Newcastle estimating it will need to lose 1,000 posts initially, potentially rising to 2,000 by 2014, but council chiefs said everything possible would be done to avoid redundancies.

Councillor Alan Napier, deputy leader at Durham, which has an annual budget of £1.2bn and employs 22,000 people, said impact on staff was inevitable and would need to be carefully managed.

Councils across the region are struggling to come to terms with budget cuts of 7.1 per cent per year, as unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne last week.

The Government will announce each council’s final grant in December.

Durham council leader Simon Henig said when interest rates and cuts to other departments were taken into account, local authority budgets could be slashed by up to 40 per cent.

Last night, Coun Henig said all of his council’s services were under review.

“The coming months will be extremely challenging and difficult as we work to continue delivering essential, high-quality frontline services while having to make significant financial savings,” he said.

Newcastle City Council, which has a budget of £270m, has already made £85m of savings over the past four years.

Chief executive Barry Rowland said: “We have an ambitious vision for Newcastle and we will not be derailed from making it a reality.”

The council’s executive was due to discuss the proposed cuts last night.

Durham County Council’s cabinet will debate its finances on Tuesday, before holding 14 public consultation meetings over the next few weeks, beginning at Stanley Area Action Partnership, at the Lamplight arts centre, on Tuesday, at 6pm.

For details of the meetings, visit durham.gov.uk

Young footballers kicking up a fuss

YOUNG footballers have hit out at Government cuts which could leave them playing on a dangerous surface.

Last night, nearly 50 youngsters gathered at the Southlands Centre, in Middlesbrough, to express their anger.

With local authorities expecting to lose millions of pounds worth of funding through the Comprehensive Spending Review, Middlesbrough Council is preparing to tighten its belt.

But the needs of young people are paramount to one local campaigner.

Ron Gordon said: “There are thousands of people who live on the estates around this centre and they are being let down.

“Games have been cancelled 15 or 16 times this year and for eight weeks last winter but things can only get worse if the all-weather surface is not replaced.

“Local councils have spent millions on public artworks like Temenos but they can’t afford to pay for new playing surfaces for young people.

“These kids deserve somewhere to play and that is why we are here – to make sure something is done about it.

“Young people are always being told to play more sport and get out more but how can they when there is nowhere safe for them to play?”

Middlesbrough Council, which runs the sports centre, is assessing the effects of the financial difficulties that it is anticipating due to the cuts.

A spokesman said: “We will take onboard the concerns of these young people but we are in the middle of an ongoing consultation process to decide the future of spending by the council.

“We will then have to prioritise our spending accordingly.”

Police estimate loss of £28m in four years

POLICE bosses in North Yorkshire fear the force will have its budget slashed by £28m over the next four years, as its Government funding could fall by 25 per cent.

The worries come despite the fact that North Yorkshire Police is less reliant on Government funding than all but two other forces.

Figures show the force gets 56.2 per cent of its annual budget from Westminster. It only gets £100 of central Government funding per head of population – £28 less than the national average.

The force, which patrols one of the largest UK policing areas, is already looking at making savings of more than £6.2m in 2010-11, raising fears over the level of front-line policing.

Joanna Carter, North Yorkshire Police Authority’s chief finance officer, said: “It is correct to say those who receive more from central funds will have a larger reduction to their overall budget.

“Our budget is £139.7m this year. By 2014-15, we think we will have £28m less.

“The reason we have a larger amount funded locally is due to the fact the people of North Yorkshire support us by paying a higher council tax level.

“We will not be able to make up that loss from local funding.

“We have tried to lessen the impact, but this is not going to be easy for anyone in policing, including us.”

The actual level of reduction is yet to be known and the police will have a clearer idea in December.