FUNDING to West Devon Borough Council from central government for the coming year will be £3.18 million, it has been announced.

The figure is a reduction of £470,000 (14.7%) on this year's figure.

Borough council leader Cllr Philip Sanders said: 'Although like all councils we are still receiving a significant decrease in central government funding, the announcement is broadly what we expected.

'There was some good news in that the Government has allocated more money to the Rural Services Delivery Grant following a study into the additional costs of providing services in rural areas.

'This has resulted in approximately £42,000 being added to our base grant.

'Although the additional sum that we have been given is very small, at least it is an acknowledgement that we are being underfunded. 

'The money is just reward for the evidence that the council contributed towards the study and the lobbying that has been carried out by ourselves, MPs and an organisation called SPARSE, which helps rural councils.'