THE campaign to secure more cash for York council today received a boost as the city's MP backed the bid.

Labour MP Hugh Bayley said he wanted to work with the authority to present the most persuasive case.

Mr Bayley supported many of the proposals in the council's Fair Grant For York campaign, which aims to get an extra £7 million from Whitehall.

Council leader Steve Galloway has warned that unless a significant slice of that is found, residents face cuts in service standards - with youth clubs, swimming pools, libraries and parks potentially in the firing line.

But Mr Bayley - whose lobbying secured an extra £1.2 million for last year's grant and helped stave off capping - warned City of York council to correct what he said were errors in the campaign document over funding levels and flood cash.

He said: "The council's growth in spending this year, and the big rise in council tax and parking charges which it imposed to pay for them, will cause some problems we have not faced before. The Government will not simply pick up the bill for the council's own decisions to spend more money.

"We ought to be able to get round the problem if the council can convince ministers that it is getting its spending back under control."

Claims the council's spending was out of control were today rejected by Coun Galloway.

The Liberal Democrat leader said: "Spending was not out of control either under this or the previous Labour administration.

"York spends less per head of population that any other council in the country. Hugh Bayley knows this increase is outside our control and down to extra responsibilities from central government and the consequences of an ageing population on social service budgets."

He said changes to the spending programme - like pensioner travel initiatives - were made after savings were found in areas such as public relations.

The MP took issue with the view that York had received a "declining level of funding". Since 1997, he said, York had received a 32 per cent increase in the central government grant in cash terms.

Council finance officers do not disagree the budget settlement had risen by that scale. But they say payments have not kept pace with new services the authority was expected to provide, or the growing cost of maintaining existing services.

Mr Bayley criticised Coun Galloway's "misleading" attack on the Government over floods cash.

Coun Galloway says the Government owes the council nearly £800,000 it was promised in clean-up costs. But Mr Bayley says York has received everything to which it was entitled.

Updated: 09:51 Tuesday, October 12, 2004