HEALTH and social care budgets at York council are expected to be almost £250,000 in the red this year. The figure shows both how much strain vital services in York are under - and how unrealistic budgets imposed by Whitehall are.

The ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition plans to increase council tax by 3.7 per cent. Labour, however, has called for a 4.99 per cent increase. That would add just 30p a week to bills, but could help stop cuts to social care, the party says.

We’re with Labour on this one. In fact we called for just such a council tax rise a few weeks ago. We hope the ruling coalition might still listen.