Sandwiches are off the menu for councillors who are cutting corners to cope with the economic downturn.

Worthing Borough Council is planning to drop sandwiches and cakes from its committee meetings to make the town’s tax burden easier to swallow.

It is part of a swathe of money-saving measures brought in to keep this year’s council tax increase down to 3.9%.

Council leader Keith Mercer told The Argus: “We are in a recession and we have to look at economies. We are not freeloaders as councillors and we wanted to make our contribution in a very small way to keeping the council tax down.

“We are trying to put more money into things we need to do like housing advice, helping the homeless.

“There are lots of things we need to do now that we didn’t need to do a year ago to help people because of the financial situation.”

The council hopes to save millions of pounds by merging its staff with Adur District Council.

The two town halls will still be run by separate political councils but their decisions will be carried out by the same staff.

A full meeting of Worthing Council is being held to approve the budget on February 24.

Other efficiency savings include cutting rubbish collections from allotments – where holders will be told to compost green waste and get rid of other rubbish themselves – and reducing the hours security guards work at Worthing Town Hall.