Fewer roads will be gritted during winter and some grass verges will remain uncut for longer in summer under massive savings plans set to be considered by Lancashire County Council.

The authority’s Conservative cabinet will next week decide whether to give the go-ahead to £84 million of spending reductions in an attempt to bridge a ballooning budget deficit

County Hall leaders, who govern frontline services for Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Rossendale and Pendle, say this has been caused by factors beyond its control.

The projected shortfall in the county council’s coffers next year has almost trebled from £30.5m to £87m.

This means there is a potential budget gap by the end of 2026-27 of £159.7m budget gap, amid spiralling inflation, rising interest rates, a higher than expected national pay settlement for local authority staff and growing demand for adult and children’s social services.

Labour says the sum is “eye-watering” – and warned the stage was set for another period of austerity.

Cabinet members will be asked next week to approve 32 different day-to-day savings measures to help balance the books.

The changes to gritting and grass cutting represent some of the smallest potential money-savers in that list – amounting to £253,000 and £50,000 respectively.

Other plans cover cutting spending on the most expensive children’s home placements – including potentially building a new county council home.

If the gritting changes get the green light, 45 primary routes currently treated by gritters would be cut to 41.

County Hall says it might need to install more grit bins in order to help mitigate any risks, but believes the proposed changes would make the gritting process more efficient.

County Cllr Alan Vincent, highways cabinet member said officials were content the county council could still “safely grit the roads that need doing by just changing the routes around a little bit”.

Meanwhile grass cutting plans – which would affect only those verges alongside rural and high-speed roads – would see the current four cuts per year trimmed back to three.

The largest savings total covers £28.7m County Hall believes it can generate by better “cost-sharing” with the NHS – and increasing the amount it claims back from the health service to fund people’s ongoing healthcare needs.

Similarly, it is estimated £2.7m could be secured by making efforts when it comes to the financial arrangements for the care of children and young people.

Another £11.3m could be saved by the continued rollout of the Living Better Lives in Lancashire scheme, which focuses on providing alternative options to formal care.

County Hall is also aiming to find £32.4m in longer-term savings on contracts, technology and workforce. This would close the budget gap by 2026/27 to £41.4m.

County Cllr Alan Vincent, deputy leader, said he was “confident” at this stage compulsory redundancies could be avoided as part of the changes because so many roles cannot be filled.

Labour opposition group leader County Cllr Azhar fears the now-delayed fiscal statement by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will contain some unwelcome surprises for local authorities like Lancashire County Council when it is finally delivered on November 17.

He said: “We’ve had 12 years of austerity from Conservative governments – starting with Cameron and Osborne and now up to Rishi Sunak.

"The situation could be made worse because the government is talking about cuts to capital projects and also revenue – and the biggest hit is always to frontline services like adult social care and children with special needs.

“The devil is in the detail, but we are now seeing a second round of austerity and the impact that years of Tory cuts have had on local council funding. This £160m of cuts is eye-watering and it will potentially have a devastating effect on frontline services.

“It needs Rishi Sunak to finally invest in local government because otherwise the county council is going to be an oversized parish council.”

County Cllr Ali also challenged Tory members across the political divide at County Hall to join forces with Labour for the sake of Lancashire over improved funding.

The county council’s £159.7m projected budget shortfall by 2026/27 would – if it came to pass – put the authority 80 per cent of the way back to the £200m deficit it had when the Conservatives retook control of County Hall in May 2017.

But the Tories in Lancashire made bridging the budget gap a priority. Only in February county councillors heard the authority’s medium-term deficit – up to the end of 2024/25 – was down to £41m. The current set of financial forecasts would wipe out many of those gains.