PITY the county council. Before Christmas the Labour-run authority was over the moon about how much it was being given to spend by the (Labour) government.

Councillors said they were pleased as punch with the £222million settlement figure for the coming year.

Now, I don't know about you, but I took this to mean that council tax wouldn't have to rise by much at all, and there wouldn't be any cuts in services.

I don't know what's happened over the last few weeks, but all of a sudden leading figures at county hall are bemoaning their lack of cash.

Now the county council is saying it has to make changes or council tax will have to rise by far too much.

So all of a sudden we're facing a raft of cuts.

Rural libraries, daily meals on wheels services and school uniform grants for people who really can't afford school uniforms - they're all facing the axe.

I'm not unreasonable. I can understand that local authorities might have to make cutbacks because of financial pressures.

What I can't understand though is why these potential cuts can be announced just weeks after a council said it was "happy". I'm also at a bit of a loss to explain how council chiefs singled out services that should bear the brunt of the cuts.

It's like they put a list of the most vulnerable people in the county into a hat and drew them out. Either that, or the Hooded Claw has started working on policy for the county council.

I mean, what are they thinking by cutting back services for the poor and elderly? And this from a Labour administration. Even Thatcher at her most evil wouldn't have tried that. Ok, maybe I've gone a little overboard there. Nevertheless...

I can just imagine the minds of the cartoon-like evil geniuses at work when they are deciding what should go to the wall: "Elderly, lonely people in receipt of meals on wheels? Let's give them a week's worth of frozen food and they can manage on their own. The fact we turfed elderly folk out of our care homes a few years ago, then promised to really, really look after them in their own homes - well, who'll remember that?!

"Families struggling to make ends meet?

"Let's take away their uniform grants so they can fork out hundreds more quid they haven't got. Let's see how they survive that blow, ha ha!

"Rural libraries which act as community centres and contact points for elderly folk, helping them to stay in touch with the community AND Catherine Cookson? So what? Close, 'em, close 'em all! Mwuhahahah!"

What next? Nicking wheels off supermarket trolleys and attaching them to wheelchairs?

Electric eels in the toddlers' swimming pools? Who knows?

Well I can tell you, the truth is even more dastardly

Because while it is looking to cut what some would say are essential services for the elderly and vulnerable, the county won't be dropping its chauffeur service for leading councillors. And the tens of thousands of pounds will still be spent on consultants to find out about such vague things as "valuing partnerships" and "stakeholder interests.".