Richmond’s finance chief has played down criticisms of the first budget cuts since his party won control of the council and accused opponents of being “bad losers”.

The council plans to reduce education budgets by more than £700,000 after the new coalition Government slashed 24 per cent off national grants.

Spending cutbacks in specific areas have been confirmed and reductions of more than £380,000 have been identified but Richmond Liberal Democrats accused the new Conservative administration of getting its priorities wrong. Pledges have already been made to put an extra £500,000 to repair pavements and potholes and changes to parking schemes are set to cost about £241,000 a year.

But Councillor Geoffrey Samuel, Richmond Council deputy leader, rejected the claims.

He said: “Our manifesto contains 108 pledges and I wouldn’t put anything in a manifesto I didn’t feel we should implement.

“They are bad losers. Their consultation in changes to parking permits [to introduce a CO2 based scheme] in the first round there was a majority against and in the second round there were 83 per cent against.

“We are implementing what their consultation told them they should have done.

“We are not delivering the Liberals’ priorities, we are delivering the people’s priorities.”

The council’s finance and performance overview and scrutiny committee were informed of the plans on July 19.

The committee was told the council’s area-based grant for educational purposes was to be cut from £3m for the current financial year to £2.3m. Other cuts include £81,000 from the budget for Connexions, the youth careers and advice service, and £23,000 from the teenage pregnancy advice service.

Other areas funded by the grants including children’s social care and substance misuse programmers are also being looked at for cuts.

Councillor Stephen Knight, leader of Richmond Liberal Democrats, said no assessment had been made of how the cuts would effect services.

He said the current budget will have a surplus of at least £1m in the first three months and savings have been made from the public sector pay freeze and national insurance changes so they need not be made.

He added: “These cuts are completely unnecessary this financial year.

“There is time to consult and to prioritise properly so the most important services can be protected.

“The Conservatives have their priorities all wrong.”

Coun Samuel said residents were prepared for cuts this year and wanted to know where they would come as soon as possible even though the council may not know the full picture until later this year and any savings made were balanced out by loss of revenues and a “£2m black hole in the social services budget”.

He added anything cut by the Government was unlikely to be restored so it was best to cut it immediately and taking some of the services away may help raise standards in schools as they had been a “distraction” to teachers.

He added: “Every cut suggested will be opposed by the Lib Dems.

“It’s ludicrous, people want to know now. ”