And although Labour councillor Tony Hooton fears that there could be education cutbacks, the effect on schools should not be as severe as originally feared.

Clr Hooton is also angry that attempts to increase youth funding have been rejected by the county council - a sensitive issue following the council's controversial decision to sell off the popular New Images youth centre in the face of huge opposition.

He said: "The opposition budget group put down a number of amendments to the budget - they were all defeated.

"The effect of this on Winsford will be that community action project funding could well be cut.

Rejected

"And we tried to put extra money into the youth budget. This was also rejected which will make it difficult to expand youth work throughout the county.

He added: "Following lots of letters from schools the top-slicing of the education budget was reduced from three per cent to 0.5 per cent.

"This will still mean some loss of teaching jobs but not as drastic cuts as we thought in the first place.

"The overall picture is that the county council is still a major provider of jobs in Winsford but there will be some effect on people who need the services.

"And I think we need to remember that there is an ever increasing demand on social services for older people. We are all living older and a lot of people are very dependent on the county council.

"It doesn't matter which party is in control at the county council, we still need to have enough money in the budget for people who need it the most."

rfraser@guardiangrp.co.uk