COUNCILLORS who went to Westminster to lobby for extra cash feel kicked in the teeth after a minister responded -- by taking more money off them!

Ministers have announced revised finance settlements -- the amounts they give to councils -- and both Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council have lost out.

The county authority has had £1.3million taken off its original £999.819 million to £998.748 million, while Blackburn with Darwen Council has seen its support fall back from £132.6million to £132.2million.

Blackburn with Darwen is currently reassessing its budgets before deciding whether the cuts from Government will impact on council tax.

But at Lancashire County Council, that decision has already been taken. Its portion of council tax -- to which borough, police and parish precepts have to be added -- will now rise 9.46 per cent instead of the originally planned 9.16 per cent.

That means the average Band D property will pay an extra £2 a year above what was originally planned to the county council, taking it up from £856 last year to £937 this year.

Had Government now clawed money back, it would have gone up to £935.

Coun Tony Martin, head of finance at the council, was part of a delegation, headed by county council leader Coun Hazel Harding, which went to London last month.

Today, he said: "We went to Government to ask for more and they take some off us.

"We have lost out because we are a mixed authority, we have both rural and urban issues to deal with. Areas which are either totally rural or totally urban seem to have benefited.

"The Government keeps tinkering but the real answer is to make the whole local government pie bigger."

The authority has already announced £20million in cuts to keep council tax increase below double figures.