BRACKNELL'S MP branded Westminster's budget cuts 'unsustainable' after a government u-turn has seen an extra £6m pledged to Bracknell and Wokingham.

Initial plans would have seen half of Wokingham's Revenue Support Grant and 28 per cent of Bracknell's cut next year.

The two authorities had seen some of the largest proportional cuts to their budget which led to council leaders Keith Baker and Paul Bettison joining forces with the other four Berkshire unitary authority leaders and the MPs to lobby Westminster for fairer funding.

Bracknell's conservative MP Dr Phillip Lee and Wokingham's John Redwood lobbied the minister responsible for local authority funding.

Dr Lee said: "I am grateful to my ministerial colleague for coming to this situation with an open mind and accepting that Bracknell Forest and Wokingham were being asked to accept an unsustainable burden.

"This new money will allow the two councils to continue what they have been doing over the last 10 years, which is to cut down on waste in order to maintain a good service provision at a reasonable cost to local taxpayers."

Now the government have relieved the pressure giving grants of almost £2m to Bracknell Forest and more than £4m to Wokingham, staged over two years.

Mr Redwood, Wokingham's MP, said: "Following my representations for a transitional relief system and Wokingham’s own submission, I asked the Secretary of State today what action he is taking to help us in his revised settlement.

"He told me the new transitional relief system he has agreed to give Wokingham £2.1m more than the provisional settlement."

Cllr Paul Bettison, leader of Bracknell Forest Council, welcomed the move.

"The extra money to help us with the transitional costs shows the benefit of the concerted approach that we made to ministers to explain our difficulties in implementing proposed savings in the short timescales originally suggested," he said.