The sword of Damocles is hanging over the head of services in Elmbridge, the council’s leader warned this week.

Non-statutory services such as leisure and culture are under threat as Elmbridge Council prepares for Government cuts it fears could cost it a further £1.3m next year.

Only two of the changes proposed for the Formula Grant, which determines how much money each council receives back from Government after it has handed over its council tax revenue, would have a significant impact, but the council is preparing for the worst.

Councillor John O’Reilly, leader of Elmbridge Council, said “If the worst case scenario option is taken, the following year would be a total nightmare. Two of the options would be broadly cost neutral, but one of the options would leave Elmbridge suffering seriously and one of them very seriously.”

Dominic Raab, MP for Esher and Walton, has now written to Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to lobby for Elmbridge’s cause.

Leader of the council’s Residents’ Associations party, Councillor Chris Sadler, said he did not envisage a Tory Government choosing an option which would see it “rocking the boat in terms of council tax”.

However, he added the worst case scenario would leave the council having to make “horrible decisions” on what to cut.

He said: “If the Government decided to go down the road of selecting the worse option for Elmbridge we would get massively hit - it would be pretty grim.

“There are some things you can’t cut - statutory services like rubbish collections and so on, but it could be argued Elmbridge doesn’t need to have two swimming pools. A lot of the leisure and cultural services are discretionary.”

Councillor Roger Whittaker, portfolio holder for resources, told a meeting of the Conservative cabinet the council would be forced to use money from its reserves if left with a £1.3m hole to fill, because the timing of the decision would leave it with little time to prepare well thought-out cuts.

Meanwhile, the Tory cabinet has already announced plans to make savings of £1.25m this year.

Proposed cuts include the stopping the £50,000 budget for Walton library’s information desk service and the freezing of council positions.

Elmbridge’s garden waste collection service could also increase in cost by 11 per cent.

The Government has set out four alternatives for reducing the Forumla Grant - two would have little impact on Elmbridge Council’s funding, but the others would see Elmbridge losing either £635,000 or, in the worst case scenario, £1.3m - the equivalent of a 10.3 per cent increase in council tax.

The biggest loss of money could come from the lower tier authorities’ loss of control of concessionary bus fares to higher tier authorities, in this case Surrey County Council.