TOWN Hall bosses have to find an extra £300,000 to meet the cost of staff pay increases.

National negotiators have agreed a three-year deal which gives rises of 2.75 per cent backdated to April, and 2.95 per cent in both 2005 and 2006.

However, Bury Council has set aside only 2.5 per cent in this year's budget -- and department directors have now been told to raise the difference from their budgets.

There will be other costs on top, because the deal comes with conditions: these include the council having to do equal pay audits, revise its premium rates, review staff conditions of service, and draw up a new pay and rewards policy.

Members of the council's executive gave their backing to the national deal at their meeting on Wednesday.

Councillor Roy Walker, Tory leader, raised the question of how the council could find this large sum while saying it was too poor to bail out Bury Racial Equality Council, which wanted only one-tenth of that figure.

But Coun Trevor Holt, lead member for human resource, said the comparison was not fair -- and it would be "disastrous" if the council broke ranks and refused to pay the rises.