Council leaders will debate the authority's budget on Friday.

They say a change in the Whitehall's formula for distributing cash has put extra pressure on the authority.

Councillors have also accused the government of shifting more money to the North and Midlands at the expense of councils in the South.

We all understand what it means to our individual tax payers because we are tax payers ourselves Harold Hall, West Sussex County Council

Harold Hall, Conservative leader of West Sussex County Council, said government policy meant the council had been left with no choice.

He said: "All those authorities that the government has chosen to shift funding from in order to put it elsewhere are in much the same position.

"We all understand what it means to our individual tax payers because we are tax payers ourselves and the impact falls as heavily on us as it does on anyone else."