THROUGH your letters page, I wanted to give a local councillor’s take on the recent Budget.

From a local government point of view, the Chancellor has already reduced the amount that goes to support our services by 40 per cent in the last Parliament and intends to do much the same in this one.

Local government had been promised 100 per cent retention of business rates, but that is now reduced as the government promises not to collect £37 billion from small businesses.

Good for small businesses, but it closes another source of funding needed to run our services.

The new burden of a one per cent increase in pension contributions will also need to be funded from our ever-decreasing budget.

At the time when an ageing population continues to put pressure on our adult social services. I am also very concerned about the move to bring all schools into the academy network.

Ofsted rated 82 per cent of council-maintained schools as outstanding or good.

I fear that this may drive standards down and threaten the very existence of our much-loved smaller, rural schools as local council support is stripped away.

– Richard Leppington (UKIP), Gloucestershire County Council, Blakeney and Bream.