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Looks serene but Cumbria is facing big cuts in its council services.

On the face of it Cumbria County Council looked like it had got away lightly in the cuts announced this week.

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As I mentioned earlier this week, it's because his figures are based on the reduction in council spending power.

So that takes into account extra money which local government will get for social care, and other services. It does not represent the like-for-like reduction in government grants.

So in reality the cuts in the government grant are much larger than the average 4.4% reduction in "spending power" that the Government has talked about.

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And so Cumbria says a figure which shows its spending power was being reduced by just 1.9% does not reflect the reality of the cuts the county council will have to make.

In fact they calculate their grants from the Government were £227.5m last year but go down to £192.8m next year. That's a reduction of more than 15%.

So the council says it will have to make deep cuts of more than £27m.

It's not the only council that is painting a grimmer picture than the Government. Some of the Cumbrian districts say they are also losing more than expected.

And Durham County Council says the settlement means it will need to make cuts of £100m and shed 1,600 jobs.

The Government believes councils can protect front line services by cutting red tape and pursuing radical options (sharing services with neighbouring local authorities etc).

But most councils disagree saying cuts on such a scale will hit the services the public value.

As local authorities get into their budget detail in the New Year, we'll find out who's right.

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