YET another £60 million of cuts over the next five years could be needed at Oxfordshire County Council, raising fears about the loss of valued services and jobs.

This would be on top of the £284m already outlined to be slashed by 2018, of which £88m the authority said must still be delivered.

The authority has warned an “emergency Budget” – expected from Chancellor George Osborne in July – and national spending reviews later in the year are expected to present “significant financial challenges”.

Today finance bosses will warn senior councillors that up to a further £60m could need to be cut over the next five years.

The authority could also face continuing restrictions on how much council tax it can raise and has already planned to spend 85 per cent of its £130m reserves in an attempt to protect services from previously agreed cuts.

Mr Hudspeth, leader of the Conservative-run administration, refused to speculate on what services in Oxfordshire could be at risk, but it has been warned that some might have to go altogether.

Children’s centres, grant funding for community groups, homeless support, libraries and youth centres are all feared to be in the firing line as the council is not legally obliged to provide them. But there were calls from the Oxford Parent Infant Project, a group that provides parent-infant therapy, that further cuts to children’s centres would be “short-sighted”.

Executive director Adrian Sell said: “Staff and services provided by children’s centres are a crucial resource for parents at a pivotal time of life for them and their children.

“While recognising the pressures faced by the county council we know that investing early in a child’s life saves money through reducing the need for later interventions as well as by improving parents’ wellbeing and children’s life chances. In our view, to cut them now would be short-sighted.”

Mr Hudspeth said it was too early to say what cuts would be looked at – or how much they would be – until the Government’s plans were confirmed later this year.

He suggested that in some cases, non-essential services could be delivered in joint ventures with charities.

Mr Hudspeth said: “We will only understand the situation fully once the Chancellor has delivered his Budget.

“In some cases we will have to look at services being delivered through mutual companies and in other ways, but we will work hard with the voluntary sector to deliver them. The most important thing is we keep providing services to the most vulnerable in the county who need them. If there are opportunities for devolution of financial powers from the Government, then we must also look at those.”

He would not be drawn on whether the council would hold a referendum on raising council tax, if the threshold remained at two per cent.

Conservative Mr Husdpeth added: “There was a referendum on May 7 when the Conservative government was elected.

“The party manifesto was quite clear about budget reductions and we will have to build that in to our plans.”

Friends of Summertown Library member Marcus Ferrar, of Capel Close, said “no one would welcome” further cuts, but that his group was working with the county council to help support the service. It is planning improvements at the library, with residents so far raising £15,000 of the £400,000 needed. The work would see new bookshelves, walkways and seating, new decorations and a bigger layout. Wireless internet has already been installed, Mr Ferrar said.

The 70-year-old said: “Everyone has known for some time that there could be more cuts coming, but no one would welcome having services reduced.

“But since saving the library in 2011 we have been collaborating with the council and are also having talks about making a formal partnership.”

County council Labour leader Liz Brighouse said: “There is already significant pressure on delivering a range of services, so how the Government thinks these new savings can be found I do not know. This is inevitably going to lead to job losses.”

None of the MPs contacted by the Oxford Mail responded to requests for comment.

In their report to senior councillors, chief finance officer Lorna Baxter and head of policy Maggie Scott wrote: “The county council must continue to meet its legal obligations, for example, in providing services for vulnerable people to meet their eligible care needs.

“However in the future it is likely we may be unable to afford to maintain all of our current services, and there may be the need to reduce or stop some provision altogether, or deliver these in different ways.”