SLASHING cuts planned for York's council ward committee budgets have come under fire from authority opposition chiefs.

Labour group leader Coun Dave Merrett branded proposals to trim £163,000 off the budget given to committees as "bad democracy for York" and "high-handed".

City of York Council leader Steve Galloway unveiled plans to cut the budgets earlier this month, as he unveiled the financial position of the chief executive department for the coming year.

He said £6 million of savings across the authority and the cuts in the chief executive department were down to a poor Government grant settlement, and because Whitehall had withheld £1.25 million to which the council was entitled.

Coun Merrett said the proposals, which could be ratified at a full council budget meeting next month, could cut almost a third off the budgets available to ward committees.

He used a council advisory meeting to criticise the proposals, as well as questioning plans to reduce the number of scrutiny officers available to "assist council members to hold the executive to account".

He said: "I am extremely concerned by both of these issues. We in the Labour group would like to see as many decisions as possible made by local people in their own communities.

"By cutting the ward committees' budgets, the Lib Dems are again showing their high-handed attitude to local residents. This may threaten key projects that a number of ward committees fund, like local Police Community Support officers and rangers, youth initiatives, etc.

"Together with the Lib Dems' cuts last year to the Safer York Partnership, which are undermining its role, community safety may well lose out from these cuts again.

"On a similar theme, it is further confirmation of their complete cynicism that the Liberal Democrat executive is proposing to reduce the resources available to the very function that is there to assist non-executive councillors in scrutinising their decisions and the council's operation.

"This is a further move away from open government that the Liberal Democrats used to espouse when they were in opposition, and is bad for democracy in York."

Coun Galloway said: "This is not something we want to do, but it is being forced upon us because of the inadequacy of the Government grant. Discretionary services are the ones that come under pressure. If expenditure comes below budget, we would hope to restore at least some of the ward committee budget."

Updated: 10:50 Wednesday, January 25, 2006