Voluntary organisations' funding is to be slashed by £50,000 as Mid Sussex Council struggles to balance its budget.

District councillors last night voted to tear up existing funding arrangements with three groups.

One, the Citizens Advice Bureau, said it would consider legal action aimed at reversing the decision.

Independent inspectors recently told the Tory-run authority it needed to make cuts.

Last night Liberal Democrat opposition councillors and the CAB said the authority may have been acting illegally if it did not give voluntary organisations 12 months' notice of funding cuts.

The CAB, which has offices in Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and East Grinstead, will get £25,000 less than last year.

Age Concern in Burgess Hill will lose £10,000 and the Sussex Rural Community Council will lose £4,000.

Councillors also decided to cut community transport grants by £7,000 and special initiative grants by £4,000.

Val North, manager of the Haywards Heath branch of the CAB, said she feared the cut in funding could lead to the service suffering.

She said: "We are very disappointed. We have a large grant from the council but it is necessary and we can justify it.

"The council has told us we have got to reorganise but it takes time. This is just a swingeing cut without the notice to which we feel entitled. If necessary we will consider taking this higher."

Mrs North said the cuts would make the service much harder to run. She said the CAB would have to make difficult decisions but she did not want clients to suffer.

Tory councillors argued the agreement between the council and the voluntary organisations was not legally binding.

Councillor David Russell, Cabinet member for community development, said: "Last year we gave the CAB £162,000 and we have been pressing them for 12 months or more to seek more integration.

"We recognise what they do but we believe they are taking too big a slice of a very limited budget.

"It is not up to us to impose a solution on them but it is costing the shirt off our back and restricting our ability to help other organisations. The decision is about sharing the money out fairly."

There was a strong backlash from the Liberal Democrats. Coun Ken Blanshard branded the cuts "harsh, distasteful and unnecessary" and Coun David Shevels condemned the council for slashing support for "worthwhile and hard-working organisations".

Councillors also confirmed a council tax rise of eight per cent which means the average homeowner with a property in Band D will have to pay £938.13, including precepts to the county, police authority and parish councils.

Council leader Christine Field said: "We have been trying for some years to bring the CAB together to provide an integrated service across the district."