BURY Council will receive an extra £7 million for adult social care from the Government.

The sum will be spread out over the next three years with £3.5 million coming in 2017/18 after Chancellor Philip Hammond announced an additional £2 billion nationally over two years.

Bury will receive £2.3 million in 2018/19 and a further £1.2 million in 2019/20.

Leader of the council Rishi Shori was pleased with the success of a Labour lobbying effort by the council and MP for Bury South Ivan Lewis.

Cllr Shori said: “I am delighted we have forced the Conservative Government unto a U-turn and have got at least some additional funding for some of the most vulnerable people in the borough.

“We have been campaigning for this for years.

“It doesn’t make up for the fact that the council will have lost almost £97 million of Government funding by the end of the current parliament but, any additional funding is well received.”

Bury South MP Ivan Lewis said “I have always fought to protect valuable public services from the impact of austerity and working with the council I am pleased that we have achieved this positive result.”

Conservative Bury North MP, David Nuttall was also pleased by the additional funding, he said: “I welcome all extra money for our community in Bury, for our town.

“The bottom line is there is no magic money tree and the only way to get the public services is by having a strong and growing economy. It’s growing faster, despite all the uncertainties, than all the others in the G7.

“We are only in a position to be able to do this because we have a growing economy.”

But the cash injection led to a row. Cllr Shori suggested Bury North MP David Nuttall snubbed him when he asked for help lobbying the Government for additional funding.

Mr Nuttall was asked by Cllr Shori in February to “champion Bury in Parliament” to “end the inequity” which sees Bury Council underfunded when compared with the rest of the country and Greater Manchester.

However, Mr Nuttall felt lobbying the Government in February was much too late considering the imminent Budget announcement and later pointed out Bury gained additional funding anyway.

Cllr Shori was told by Mr Nuttall: “If Labour cannot cope running Bury they should step down and let the Conservatives do the job.

“Bury has known what the financial position is and was going to be for years.

“More could and should have been done to prepare and plan ahead for the budget.”

Cllr Shori called Mr Nuttall’s response “ill-considered”. He said: “If we left it to Bury Conservatives like David Nuttall we would continue to get the thin end of the wedge.”

Mr Nuttall called the suggestion he was indifferent to his constituents “ludicrous”,