ANDOVER’S councillors face continued pressure on their budgets over the next two years as more Government support funding is reduced.

Test Valley’s financial portfolio holder Cllr Peter Giddings told members of the borough council’s Cabinet that in addition to the 25 per cent cut in Government support this year, more reductions are expected over the next two financial years, leading to a need to find further savings exceeding £1m in total.

An increase in interest rates would help the council by significantly boosting its income but Cllr Giddings said: “It is very difficult to predict when there may be any increase in income from interest.”

One area targeted for cutbacks from 2012 is grants to outside organisations, but rather than simply announce across the board reductions when the economic troubles hit, the council says that it has spent the past year discussing the situation with voluntary bodies in a way that should enable them to cope.

So far grant cuts of £95,000 – 11 per cent of the total – have been identified, with the museum, Shopmobility, Andover Crisis and Support Centre, The Junction, Neighbourcare and the CAB all facing a cut.

Leisure and wellbeing portfolio holder Cllr Tony Ward said: “A lot of work has been done trying to identify savings rather than send out a cut through the post.

“It has been a constructive effort. Everybody is going to lose funding.”

To raise its income, Cabinet members recommended that most of its charges will increase roughly in line with the rate of inflation expected next spring – about three per cent.

A paper on increasing car parking charges by significantly more than the rate of inflation was withdrawn from the meeting on Wednesday evening and further work will be undertaken before a proposal on parking charges is brought back before councillors.