�4.5 million is to be made avaliable for services for children, the elderly and vulnerable in Devon.

DEVON County Council is to increase its spending to protect services for children, the elderly and vulnerable over the next year.

It revealed today (Tuesday) that more than �4.5 million will be available for these services in the county.

Council taxpayers could also have their bills for county council services frozen for another year, according to a draft budget.

County Council leader John Hart said: “We have always said we would do our utmost to keep the cuts to a minimum.

“We also pledged to protect services for the young, the elderly and the vulnerable as we did this year.

“The details will be worked out over the coming weeks but I believe this target budget will allow us to do that again.

“We have had a better settlement from the Government than expected this year.

“When we originally calculated the scale of the savings we had to make, the Government had not offered to subsidise a council tax freeze and we have to decide whether to accept their offer.

“We also have to allow �8 million for inflation, which has been running at over five per cent.

“On top of that, the Government is not withdrawing as much as we anticipated from our budget as recompense for the schools which have become academies.”

The target budget will be presented to council leaders at a meeting of the cabinet tomorrow (Wednesday).