It adds that the core offer will not be sustainable unless central Government allocates more funding. Council leader Keith Glazier said: “We’d all like to provide more than a core service because none of us came into politics to make cuts, but this proposal is presented as a realistic ambition in a time of austerity.”

Proposed changes, which will go to public consultation, would see a 6% cut in highways maintenance spending next year and a reduction in the maintenance of rights of way through the countryside. Landowners will be expected to maintain footpaths on their land. Savings are also proposed across road safety services, concessionary travel and public transport customer services.

A report setting out East Sussex’s ‘core offer’ and presented to its Cabinet yesterday says that the direct effect of Budget announcements from the Chancellor on the council’s financial position will not be certain until it receives a provisional local government settlement, expected on 6 December.

The report also says that East Sussex does not know how much of the £420M recently announced by the Chancellor to fix potholes and carry out highway repairs in the current financial year will be allocated to the council.

Councillor David Tutt, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, told TP Weekly News that the Conservative run council needs to “be banging on the door of Government” in order to “wake them up” to the austerity challenges facing local authorities. “Roads across the country are quite literally beginning to fall apart and the national Government must do something,” he said.