West Sussex County Council leaders are demanding a meeting with the Government to discuss a "paltry" cash handout.

The council will receive £6,000 from Gordon Brown's £340 million lifeline for local authorities, designed to help prevent large council tax rises.

In November the county got a 4.5 per cent annual grant increase of £17.1 million.

A county council spokeswoman said if the lifeline grant had been distributed on a pro rata basis it would have received £2.5 million.

Instead, it is left with a choice of dramatically raising taxes or cutting back on services.

Council leader Henry Smith is trying to arrange a meeting with Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford to "demand to know why we have been treated in such a manner".

Mr Smith said: "We received the third-lowest settlement of any county council last month and now the Government has awarded us an extra £6,000.

"This equates to the princely sum of 2p per year off the typical Band D council tax. If we had been given our fair share we could have knocked two per cent off the council tax increase.

"I am not sure what Sussex folk have done to deserve this."