Newcastle Council cuts

It will hit the poorest the hardest, and set the city back years - that's the verdict of unions on Newcastle City Council's plans to cut ninety million pounds from its budget.

The council says that it has to lose libraries, swimming pools and jobs after the government reduced its grant.

Residents have today been learning which of their services are facing the axe.

Watch the full report from Dan Ashby below.

The City of Newcastle ASC has had swimmers competing at international level every year since 1982, but it may not survive if its home, the City Pool in the city centre, is closed because of council budget cuts.

Chris Cook trained at Newcastle's City Pool, which is due to close next year because of council budget cuts.

More announcements have been made about how the cuts put forward by Newcastle City Council will be made.

Arts and culture will be hugely affected as the Laing and Discovery museums will lose a third of their budget and smaller art galleries like the Side gallery may face complete closure.

It has also been announced that up to ten libraries will close, although the council is keen to stress that there will still be a library within a mile and a half for most people.

Up to six pools, including Newcastle's City Pool, may close down over the months to come.

Newcastle City Council's new budget comes as thirty million pounds of cuts have been handed down from central government - which the government says are needed to fix our economy.

The budget from Newcastle City Council is seen to be a precedent for other councils in the region.

A North East union has said that the 90 million pound cuts being made by Newcastle City Council will hit the poorest the hardest.

The budget, which was revealed last night, proposes that 1,300 people lose their jobs and many services across the city are shut down.

The Newcastle budget also proposes losing half of all flowerbeds on roundabouts, and reducing street cleaning and litter picking.