MORE than £12million has been slashed from the budgets of East Lancashire councils in the Government savings drive.

The announcement by ministers yesterday will see key areas of spending, such as education and employment schemes, face drastic cuts, along with other council services like road safety and anti-terrorism programmes.

But council leaders vowed to ensure the £12.8m austerity measures would not hit frontline services.

Under the £1.67bn savings package for English councils, Blackburn with Darwen Council saw its budget slashed by £4m from £235.2m, including £1.8m lopped off its education pot.

Lancashire County Council’s budget was reduced by almost £8m from £1.15bn, including savings of £6.6m in its education department and £655,000 in road safety.

However, senior councillors said they had budgeted for cuts of up to £20million.

Deputy county leader Albert Atkinson said: “All public services will be affected by the need to reduce spending nationally not only this year but in future years and in Lancashire we’re as well prepared as we can be.”

Borough councils in East Lancashire saw between one and two per cent of their budgets slashed.

Burnley Council leader, Lib Dem Charlie Briggs, was last night called to an emergency meeting with chief executive Steve Rumbelow over the £300,000, or two per cent, slashed from its £15.2m budget, including £264,000 from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund pot, designed to get people in deprived area into work.

Coun Briggs said: “We are a deprived borough but once again we are suffering.

"I am disappointed and sick of us being kicked by budget cuts in Burnley.

“However, hopefully our cuts from last year should cover these losses.”

Rossendale’s Conservative council leader, Tony Swain, said residents in the borough “will not notice” the £64,000 in community cohesion cut from the authority’s £6.6m budget.

He said: “This is disappointing but not unexpected.”

However, not all East Lancashire authorities saw their grants reduced.

Lancashire police and Lancashire fire service will remain unchanged, as will those of Ribble Valley and Chorley councils.