A RAFT of service cuts has been agreed as the region's biggest council seeks to find almost £14m-worth of savings while pressing for an inflation-busting council tax increase.

Library services, schemes for people with learning disabilities and family centres are among the casualties in the cutbacks approved by Labour-run Durham County Council's cabinet.

The county's share of the council tax - about 80 per cent of the total bill, which also includes district council, police, fire service and parish council spending - is expected to rise by 4.6 per cent in April.

The increase, which will see the cost to people in a band D house rise by £42.57 to £967.41, now has to be formally adopted by the full council.

Government under-funding has been blamed for what council leader Ken Manton claimed was the "the toughest-ever budget-building programme".

Independent councillor for Weardale John Shuttleworth said the council had been "shafted" again by the Government, despite being in Labour's heartland.

The council's citizens' panel said a 4.5 per cent council tax increase would be acceptable.

Deputy council leader Don Ross said the rise was being limited by the council spending £3m from its reserves and that it was redirecting "more than £8m into helping meet the increased demand for services from some of the most vulnerable people in the county. "The vast majority of savings have been found in 'back-room' services, through cutting administration, management and support costs, as part of the council's continuing drive towards maximum efficiency and value for money," he said.

"However, there are services we may no longer be able to afford to provide, and some establishments that may have to close, but where this may happen, it will be because there are other areas more in need of funding, and more vulnerable people in greater need of the council's support."

Paul Thompson, assistant secretary of the council's Unison union branch, said his members were concerned about the impact on their jobs and services and hoped there would be no redundancies.

A council spokesman said it was too early to give a figure for job losses, and that the council would look at all alternatives to compulsory redundancy.

The cuts include closing Wheatley Hill's part-time library and stopping the trailer libraries for Blackhill, near Consett, and Coundon.

The council has shut, or will shut, family centres in Esh Winning and Shildon, the Newton Aycliffe Day Nursery and the Copelaw Education Facility, at Newton Aycliffe. Also under threat are services for people with learning disabilities, including a garden scheme and a luncheon club at Annfield Plain, near Stanley, and the Bishop Auckland Helping Hands project.