WARD committee budgets should be restored to their full levels, say York's Labour councillors.

The opposition councillors are putting a motion to the next full City of York Council meeting, calling for the ruling Liberal Democrat group to give back cash slashed from this year's authority budget.

Nearly £170,000 was trimmed from the groups, which provide important services at neighbourhood levels such as grants to Age Concern, local sports teams and providing amenities, as part of £6 million of efficiency savings earlier this year.

In the Labour group motion, Coun Ruth Potter, who is the neighbourhood services spokesman, said the group was concerned at the "number of schemes around the city which cannot be funded as a result of the cuts in the budget".

They say they want to put pressure on the Lib Dems to restore the cuts "as soon as possible" - claiming the council underspent on its budget last year.

But council leader Steve Galloway says £100,000 has already been allocated for investment in street services, with £70,000 of that going to ward committee groups.

Coun Potter said: "We are demanding that ward committee budgets be restored as we are recognising the problems that this is causing. In the grand scheme of things this is not a large amount of money, but has a significant impact on a large number of people.

"In Heworth ward alone we were unable to fund an Age Concern project to support the elderly in their own homes and an application for play equipment in a local nature reserve.

"This situation is being replicated all cross York as ward members have lost money available to them to support deserving schemes in their area."

Coun Galloway said: "I announced at the last council meeting that we would allocate £100,000 extra for investment in street level services of which £30,000 has gone to York Pride and £70,000 to Ward Committees (divided on a per capita basis).

"It is down to ward committees to decide how to allocate the extra funding. Labour is very good at spending more money while at the same time telling council tax payers that they are paying too much.

"No wonder they found balancing the budget such a challenge when they were in power."