County Hall bosses have warned that services will be slashed to the ‘bare minimum’ in the face of continued government cutbacks.

Lancashire County Council (LCC) chiefs revealed this week that cuts in grants could leave only statutory services in place by 2017/2018.

These include adult social care, children’s services, free bus passes for pensioners and waste disposal.

An LCC report based on funding forecasts from central government has projected that by 2017/18 the annual budget would have fallen to £684 million, down from £726 million this year.

The bare statutory services cost £692 million, leaving an £8 million shortfall.

LCC deputy leader David Borrows said that the cutbacks were going to ‘bite’.

He said: “Based on the mood music coming out of Westminster we are facing a reduction of around £50 million.”

Coun Borrows said that non-statutory services such as streetlighting could potentially be cut.

He said: “Keeping streetlights on is not a statutory requirement, so in theory we could turn all streetlights out to save money. Providing support for carers is also not a statutory service, but clearly these are very important things. It is just shows how it is getting more difficult to find savings.”

Coun Tony Dobson, Hyndburn council’s Tory leader, said: “The country was overspending in the last 20 years and we are now having to take a really sharp look at what we do and why we do it.”