Cumberland Council said it will continue to support cultural services as councils nationwide have significantly reduced funding over the last 14 years.

It comes as the County Councils Network said councils across the country have found it hard to balance funding towards arts and culture while demand spikes for social care and children’s services.

Local authority funding for cultural services covers areas such as libraries, open spaces, tourism, museums, and recreation and sports, has dropped.

Across England, this budgeted spending dropped by 25 per cent, from £3.4billion in 2010-11 to £2.5billion this year.

Sam Corcoran, vice chair of the County Councils Network, said: "Councils are the biggest funders of arts and culture in England, and councils in county areas recognise the value of investing in libraries, arts and heritage attractions for both our communities and our economies.

"However, with central government funding reductions over the last 14 years, councils have found it increasingly hard to balance spending on cultural services with spend on adult social care, children’s services, and special educational needs provision."

Mr Corcoran said ‘scant resource’ has consequently been ringfenced for services that have seen significant spike in demand and cost.

He added: "We understand the public finances are tight, but the case for an uplift in funding for councils is clear.

"Extra resource will mean less money would have to be re-prioritised from cultural services to care services, meaning local authorities can better protect libraries, museums and heritage – and free up investment into them."

Cllr Anne Quilter, Cumberland Council’s executive member for vibrant and healthy places, said: “Culture and leisure are critical to the health, wellbeing of our residents and the prosperity of our places.

“We continue to support sport and leisure activities by our investment in leisure centres, playing pitches, playgrounds and by maintaining our public parks and spaces to a high standard.

“We also continue to invest in our libraries, community centres, museums, performance sites and arts centres and deliver events throughout Cumberland.

“We are improving our city and towns through local regeneration initiatives, enhancing our public realm spaces, which includes contributing to our local environment with programmes to plant sustainable trees and plants to support the local wildlife.

“While austerity has also created pressures we have sought to manage these proactively by securing external funding to enhance our provision and offer.

“We are ambitious and will continue to seek available funding to deliver on our aspirations.”

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