LIBRARIES axed, funding cuts to Gawthorpe Hall and Turton Tower, charging more for hot meals on wheels Lancashire County Council's cuts to keep council tax down have been severe.

And although the authority has managed to keep its share of the tax increase down to less than five per cent the Government target MPs have ensured ministers are fully aware of the disquiet being felt around the county at the cuts.

The council is on shaky ground as it is.

After abandoning plans to launch a regional assembly two years ago, local government minister David Miliband has announced they are now reviewing the way councils operate in two-tier areas like Lancashire.

He has made no secret of the fact Labour is not keen on the borough/county structure, and believes unitary-style authorities like Blackburn with Darwen are now the way forward.

Later this year, councils are expecting to have to justify why they should survive and a battle between county and the districts is expected to start up again.

But bosses at County Hall insist they are doing a good job and if anyone should take the blame for the high rise in council tax it should be ministers.

They, says finance boss Coun Ann Brown, have refused to recognise that people are living longer and therefore costing more to look after.

Lancashire got one of the highest increases in government grant, up 3.1 per cent to £222.149 million.

Yet to maintain services, councillors claimed they needed to increase council tax which accounts for around 80 per cent of the £613million they claimed they needed to maintain services by 8.8 per cent.

Council leader Hazel Harding insisted that was not good enough and demanded it be stripped back to nearer £600million, resulting in a 4.9per cent increase in council tax but £13million in cuts.

Some in County Hall, who would not be named, said it is just as well that this isn't election year. Ahead of last year's poll, the county council increased tax by little more than three per cent.

Coun Harding said: "All we can do is work with the money we get from Government.

"We have had a real rise in demand for services, such as social care to young and old and rising demand in care for people with learning difficulties.

"Inflation is particularly severe for fuel, transport and construction. We will continue to lobby Government for a fairer share."

Coun Brown puts the problem of money more simply: "There are rising numbers of older people needing support and more of them have dementia and disabilities. Improvements in health care also mean that more and more people are living longer. That is good news but news that adds to social care costs.

"The Audit Commission last month rated Lancashire in the top seven per cent of the 150 authorities assessed in terms of value for money."

But spending £300,000 on new doors at County Hall in Preston rather than keeping five of East Lancashire's libraries open has caused outrage.

Coun David Whipp, leader of the Lib Dems at County Hall, said: "People in Lancashire are now paying for bad management from the past.

"The Government treats Lancashire like this because it just expects people to carry on voting Labour.

"It's a shoddy way to treat people here and the ultimate losers are the public who are being kicked in the teeth."

Leader of Hyndburn Council, Peter Britcliffe, has claimed people in Lancashire now pay more and get less' from the county council although members of the opposition at his authority have said the same about his administration.

County councillor Michael Welsh, leader of the Conservative group at County Hall, is equally scathing.

He said: "We are in this position now because of years of bad decisions by Labour. Budget settlements from Government could be much better, but either way, the tax payer is the loser."

And what is to stop this from happening next year?

County councillors have budgeted £306,000 on "spend to save" efficiency initiatives that will target procurement, electronic tendering and a renewed drive on debt recovery.

A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said: "Councils have been given more than enough to operate good services but they have a duty to find efficiency savings. That is a requirement."

When compared with Blackburn with Darwen, expected to come in with a 3.5 per cent increase in council tax, things don't look good.

Their grant increase was lower than Lancashire's but they have found millions in efficiency savings, ranging from cheaper mobile phone bills to using less office space.

And they continue to have some of the best libraries in the country and a museum going from strength to strength.