A COUNCILLOR in Worcestershire has taken a swipe at "successive Governments" for putting the county in funding peril - and has offered new ideas to save cash.

Councillor Richard Udall has worked with six other politicians from across the political divide to produce a nine-page report outlining fresh suggestions for the Conservative leadership at County Hall.

Councillor Udall, who chairs the Labour group, runs the county council's main watchdog-style scrutiny board which keeps an eye on decision making.

The recommendations include:

- Examining the high costs of school transport for children, which is once again ballooning over budget this year and is forecast to by 'overspent' by £677,000

- A new cross-party effort to lobby the Government on a fairer funding deal for Worcestershire

- Taking a fresh look at income generation opportunities from renting out space at County Hall and other assets like the Worcester Woods Country Park

- A review of all its agricultural land, which includes 95 farms and smallholdings

- More use of the council's £13 million general reserve kitty, funds stashed away for emergencies, to avoid cuts to frontline services

The review was done with Tory councillors, including former cabinet member Councillor Liz Eyre, Lib Dem group leader Councillor Liz Tucker and four other backbenchers, including independent Roger Sutton.

It comes as Councillor Udall hit out at the county's funding woes, saying "successive Governments" have handed it a raw deal.

He said: "The process has been difficult, the goal posts of the budget have been moved a few times and it has been difficult to get a true picture of the financial situation until quite late in the process.

"Clearly we have suffered from a reduced grant from central Government - successive governments have failed to understand the needs and aspirations of our county."

As your Worcester News first revealed last week, the county council's main Revenue Support Grant (RSG) pot is funding 33 per cent for 2016/17, down by £18 million.

Finance chiefs have plugged the gaps for next year but say for 2017/18 a record £34 million will need to be saved, of which £20 million is yet to be identified.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, the new leader, has sent a highly-critical letter to ministers expressing "deep concern" with some aspects of the deal and will be locked in talks with Local Government Secretary Greg Clark about it down in Westminster this afternoon.

Councillor Geraghty has already insisted no more cuts will be made to front line services for 2016/17.

* See the scrutiny board's report HERE.