Aberystwyth Town Council has passed a motion slamming a Ceredigion County Council online budget “game” as “offensive and inconsiderate”.

Ceredigion council’s Budget Challenge on its website encourages residents to make cuts from various funding streams and pots of money to arrive at the savings the council says it needs to make this year.

Town councillor Alex Mangold called for it to be withdrawn saying that austerity is a “brutal political ideology” that has “cost lives and inflicted hardship on the most vulnerable people in society.”

Ceredigion council said it rejects the branding of the exercise as a “game” and said that getting people’s views was necessary as it prepares for further cuts.

Cllr Mangold, who represents Penparcau for the Labour Party, said: “Constituents of mine insisted that I raise this issue.

“Dressing up budget cuts as a game is deeply offensive.

“They are softening people up for future cuts by inviting them to collude with the process in Ceredigion.”

The “online budget simulator” on Ceredigion’s website invites members of the public to “have a go” at slicing £6m off the county’s current budget.

Cllr Gareth Lloyd, Ceredigion County Council’s Cabinet member responsible for finance said: “It’s completely incorrect to call the Budget Challenge a game.

“The council does not consider cuts in excess of £45m to frontline services a game under any definition."

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