I MUST reply to Ms Raven's relating to some of the cuts that City of York Council is having to make to present a balanced budget (January 25).

Firstly, Acomb Gables is owned by the primary care trust and not the council.

The council has a legal responsibility to fund certain areas such as education but, on top of that, can provide funding that falls into the discretionary category.

Unfortunately, as I'm sure your readers are now aware, the Government, after deciding that it needed to revise the amount it gives to councils up and down the country and recognising that York had been sold short, has now compounded the problem by withholding £1.25 million from its own re-calculated figures.

Based on the money received, the council has had to look at funding this shortfall in its grant and this means that the discretionary area is where we need to look.

Some of the cuts are very small, but they are all needed to make the total savings that we are faced with.

If the Government were to change its mind, like it has done on many other issues, and release our £1.25 million, then many of these painful cuts could be avoided.

Coun K Hyman,

The Old Village,

Huntington,

York.

Updated: 09:35 Wednesday, February 01, 2006