EFFORTS to claim York's "missing million" were under way today after the Government announced its final decision on the city's budget for next year.

Almost a million pounds to pay for road maintenance is mysteriously missing from the annual grant to the City of York Council.

Today, council leader Rod Hills promised to go direct to the local government minister, Hilary Armstrong, if York did not hear soon what had become of the elusive £1 million.

The cash is needed to pay for certain roads that are maintained by the City of York Council but which, for some reason, were not counted when the Government was deciding how much funding York needed.

The mistake - to which neither the council nor the Government is owning up - amounts to £900,000. This will now have to come from the city's budget, pushing council tax bills ever higher.

The missing million was one of the points put to the Government when a delegation from the City of York Council went to Westminster last month to argue for more cash.

After that meeting, Coun Rod Hills said the minister had accepted there had been a mistake, but it was doubtful whether there would be any more cash for this year.

Today, he said there had been no word on the roads matter from Westminster.

He said: "If it is not sorted then I will contact the minister privately. I'll say she agreed our case in principle so can she knock a few civil servants' heads together."

He is hopeful that the Government will at least accept the case for the roads cash, so that York gets it in future years.

Yesterday, the Government ruled that not only would York not get any more money this year, but that it would get marginally less.

Last year, the same thing happened, when the Government listened to York's case and then promptly lopped a further £20,000 from the budget.

This time, the difference is only £1,000 less - insignificant in a council with a budget of £116 million - but it is a blow to councillors who went to London asking for £2 million more.

It means the spectre of a £72 hike in the average council tax bill is ever more likely when city councillors meet later this month to set the tax level.

Another £1.1 million, which the council wanted to borrow for capital projects, like building school annexes, will also not be available this year, the Government ruled yesterday, but York will get it in 1999/2000. The delay threatens projects planned for this year.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions explained the £1,000 cut in York's budget by saying it had recalculated it using more accurate data.

* Residents in North Yorkshire face a 15 per cent rise in their council tax bills as key services including highway maintenance and care for the elderly are cut.

Councillors were today deciding whether to spend up to the capping limit of almost £360 million next year and push up council tax bills by an average of £65. The Government's standard spending assessment for North Yorkshire falls more than £6 million short of the county's proposed budget for 1998/99.

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