REDBRIDGE Council faces a £9.3 million budget shortfall next year and is lobbying the Government for extra cash.

In June financial officers predicted the council would be about £4million in the red if it kept to the same level of services in 2002/3 as in 2001/2.

By September that figure had risen to £7.7 million but after looking more closely at the council's wage bill, officers calculated that a £9.3 million deficit in 2002/3 is a more realistic figure.

The predicted debt is so large the council will be unable to bridge the financial gap by increasing council tax as it would burst through the Government-imposed council tax threshold.

Redbridge Council leader Cllr Muhammed Javed told the Guardian that staffing pressures and governmental changes to the way it calculated local government grants were to blame.

He said: "The Government has said the cost of staff has not increased. But if you take agency teachers, for example, the Government only uses the amount the teacher gets paid and does not take into account the money we pay to the agency.

"Together with other London councils, we are lobbying the Government for more cash."

Responding to recent criticism from cllr Ian Bond over secret pay rises for council officers, cllr Javed said: "The council needs to pay its workers the same as other boroughs. Teachers can go over to Essex and get paid £3,000 more a year."

Redbridge Council will find out today if the Government has decided to increase its grant.

But the council is already proposing a list of services to be cut (including the Sir James Hawkey Hall) in case the Government does not increase the borough's funding,