NORTH Somerset Council has said that the additional funding it will receive from the government "will result in very little impact."

On Wednesday, the government announced an extra £500m nationally for social care with an expectation that councils would use this money to fund children’s social care and home to school transport services.

North Somerset Council is estimated to receive about £1.7m, although the exact figure is not yet known.

The leader of the council, Cllr Mike Bell, said that "difficult decisions" will need to be made to make savings.

Nevertheless, the council remain dedicated in ensuring an "open, fair and green North Somerset" as according to residents' wishes.

The authority wishes to hear from residents to better understand their priorities and ensure that they respect communities' views.

Cllr Bell said: “We won’t ever look a gift horse in the mouth, and of course we welcome any additional funding to ease our budget pressures, but the sad reality is that this contribution will result in very little impact on the challenges we face.

“Next month we will discuss the progress being made in our medium term financial plan and measures to set a balanced budget for the year ahead.

"I cannot stress strongly enough that these are incredibly challenging times, and without a much more significant injection of additional funding, difficult decisions about what we can and cannot do in the future will need to be made.

“Wherever we do make savings, our priority will be to implement them in ways which take us further towards our goals of ensuring an open, fair and green North Somerset, as our communities have told us that is what’s important to them.

“We are also committed to engaging further with local people and getting their views about how we achieve the savings we need to make.

"While the decisions we make will all be difficult ones, and some may not be universally popular, we want to make them in ways that respect our communities’ views.”

Speaking previously, Cllr Bell added: “We have a strong track record of delivering budget savings but are now in the position where our unfunded pressures are restricting our ability to deliver essential council services.”