An ‘urgent’ review of public health spending is being undertaken by North Somerset Council as Government cuts mean it is set to lose out on more than half a million pounds.

Staff vacancies have not been filled and some planned projects will be delayed as a result of the authority’s public health funding being cut by £572,000, midway through the financial year.

The figures have been released by the Department for Health and show the Government is planning to impose 6.2 per cent cuts to local authorities’ public health budgets nationwide.

One councillor described the cuts as ‘stupid’ and said they have been made in the ‘wrong way’, while the council’s interim director of public health, Natalie Field, said as many services as possible will be protected but some reductions may be ‘unavoidable’.

A council spokesman said: “The council is conducting an urgent spending review in order to balance the public health budget.

“The council has already identified some of the savings through not filling staff vacancies and delaying the start of planned projects.

“We have also written to public health service providers to ask them to assess how savings can best be made in relation to their current contracts.”

North Somerset has made it a priority to protect core services including NHS health checks, school nurses, sexual health services, plus smoking, alcohol and obesity initiatives.

Ms Field said: “We are looking for savings to be made as far as possible through improved efficiency and by deferring new initiatives.

“We are doing this rather than reducing current activity levels, although this might be unavoidable in some cases.”

But North Somerset’s Liberal Democrat leader and central ward councillor Mike Bell said: “Cutting the budget in the middle of the financial year means it will be really difficult to make these cuts, with approved projects facing a cut when already underway.”

Cllr Bell, who also sits on the council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel, said: “Everyone knows prevention is better than cure, so these are particularly stupid cuts.

“They have been made in the wrong way, mid-year, and they will end up costing the Government and the NHS more in long-term additional health costs than can possibly be saved.”