THE LEADER of the county council has criticised new figures from the Government that appear to downplay the extent of the financial crisis facing Oxfordshire.

County Hall is standing by its ‘plea of poverty’, despite new figures that suggest a minimal cut in its funding from central government.

The county council has been warning it must make savings of £155m over four years as a result of anticipated reductions in Whitehall funding.

Last week it announced that it was planning — among other measures — to close recycling centres, shed 1,000 jobs and charge for parking at the city’s five park-and-ride sites.

This came a fortnight after it announced that it would be withdrawing funding from 20 of the county’s 43 libraries and also a number of youth centres.

All of these proposed cuts had been put forward on the basis of estimates of the money that the council would be getting in central government funding.

But when the Government finally revealed the precise level of its funding to local authorities this week it said that Oxfordshire would be losing just 1.87 per cent of its ‘revenue spending power’.

It is the first time the term has been used — and the leader of the council said using it masked the fact that the county would be getting 17.7 per cent less money in its grant from the Government next year.

In fact, county council finance officers have suggested the authority might have to make another £4m in cuts now that the level of central government funding is clear.

Keith Mitchell, the leader of the Tory-controlled council, said the revenue spending power figures “did not make sense”. He added: “We are pretty close to our estimates.”

He explained that the revenue spending power figures included money that the council spends but has no direct control over — such as money to make up for a freeze on council tax bills for next year and for NHS services.

The Government’s Department for Communities and Local Government insisted the revenue spending power figure captured the “real picture” once all funding streams had been taken into account.

The deputy leader of the Labour group at County Hall, Richard Stevens, said: “This is an absolutely chaotic process.

“The Government promised clear information on what we would have to spend, yet we are still no clearer.

“We have a Government saying Oxfordshire has done well compared with some, but the county is saying it has to find extra savings.

“The county needs to get its act together, work out what Government is saying, what the impact will be and explain it to the people of Oxford.”