YESTERDAY it was 1,000 Lancashire police jobs under threat.

Today it is £4million worth of services at Blackburn with Darwen, including a leisure centre, 16 community centres and district libraries.

Tomorrow? The only thing certain is that worse is to come.

For example, Blackburn with Darwen chiefs believe they need to slash another £36million from the budget.

These problems are not unique to one borough. Every single council and public service in East Lancashire faces the same levels of cuts.

We can all point to areas where we believe there is waste in the public sector. But these cuts are going to go beyond that.

These won’t be the ‘efficiency savings’ seen in recent years.

Put simply, budgets are going to be savaged.

It means that in future our councils are going to provide us with far fewer services.

Next March councils will have to set tax levelsfor the new financial year.

Given the budgetary pressures, they will clearly not be able to reduce the amount demanded.

But being asked to pay the same for less will be a bitter pill to swallow for East Lancashire taxpayers.