THERE are fresh fears that Cumbria County Council may have to 'shoulder more of the burden' and face further cuts. 

The comments came after the chancellor's Comprehensive Spending Review on Wednesday. 

Senior councillors have particular concerns about the future funding of schools and adult social care. 

The council's leaders say that local authorities will be among the losers, because their services have not been given protection by the government this week in the same way police budgets have. 

Cumbria County Council must now wait to discover if it has to find further savings in addition to the £37m of cuts it already has to make in 2016/17. 

Speaking yesterday as senior councillors met in Carlisle, deputy leader Patricia Bell said: "The extent of the protection towards other services, such as the police is greater than we expected. 

"This means that those services that are not protected, like ourselves, will end up shouldering more of the burden of reductions in government spending." 

She added: "These are uncertain times and the devil will be in the detail. 

"What is unchanged is that we need to save £37mi pounds for the year 2016/17. 

"The consultation which cabinet agreed at its October meeting set out that, as £19.5m pounds of which has already been agreed in previous budget, we will need to make a further £17.5m of savings next year. 

"The draft funding settlement for local government isn’t due until the middle of December, it is only then will we know exactly what savings we need to make next year."