Cardiff Council chiefs have been asked to deliver 24% spending cutbacks worth £30m next year, as Welsh councils adapt to the scale of budget reductions faced by their English counterparts.

Average 4% cuts faced by English local authorities would cost the Welsh capital £18m in a single year, Cllr Russell Goodway, Cardiff Council's cabinet member for finance said in a written statement to the full council.

This would result in an additional £54m budget cutback over three years on top of £65m planned savings, Cllr Goodway claimed.  This would render previous worst-case scenario funding gaps of £100m as ‘somewhat optimistic' he added.