"DISASTROUS" cuts from both levels of central government have been slammed by councillors as West Dunbartonshire faces its worst budget gap in five years.

Officials and local politicians could soon have to make difficult choices to find more than £7million to fill the hole left by the Scottish and UK governments.

The previous likely budget gap was estimated at £5.612m, but the recent Scottish budget announcement has left local authorities scrambling to find more cash.

Politicians on all sides condemned the cuts to local government at the last full West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) meeting of the year on December 22.

"This is not a good budget for local government and not a good budget for West Dunbartonshire," said SNP council leader Jonathan McColl.

Councillor Martin Rooney, leader of the authority's Labour opposition group, said it was a "disaster" for the area and condemned how late information was provided to councillors.

Local authorities must set budgets by March for the year ahead but are last to get the trickle down of information on what funding is available.

The draft Scottish budget was so fresh that council officers could only off sometimes "crude" calculations of what it would mean in a verbal update.

Councillors got a private briefing on the budget crisis only the night before.

Stephen West, the retiring chief officer of resources at WDC, admitted in his last meeting: "The news isn't very helpful."

He said £1.227m in extra costs comes from the UK Government's increase to National Insurance (NI) rates earlier this year.

That NI increase is designed to pay for an increase in social care spending. And while councils in England appear to have received compensation for the extra staff bills they'll face, the money in Scotland hasn't appeared yet.

The council also faced a hit from changes to council tax and Universal Credit that could cost a further £340,000.

Mr West said the total funding from the Scottish Government was slightly better than they expected, by £144,000. But it was still a cut to councils.

In all, the budget gap is now £7.035m, an increase of £1.423m.

Councillor McColl said he would be having meetings with government ministers and all local authorities would be pushing for a better deal.

He said COSLA (the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) has already made 50 queries to the Scottish Government to try to work out the impact on local authorities'budgets.

Depute provost Karen Conaghan (SNP), who chaired the meeting, said the Scottish Government didn't seem to indicate it got money from the UK to cover the NI rise.

But she also noted the problem of the area's continuing population decline that puts pressure on their budgets and the cash they get from central government.

"The decline in population doesn't do us any favours," she said.

"We need to continue to make it an attractive area to move to and continue to live and work.

"It's a fantastic area - what can we do to attract other people to move here?"

Labour councillor John Mooney pointed to funding not being linking to deprivation statistics, despite so many measures of government being linked to those figures.

Cllr McColl said councils like West Dunbartonshire faced so many extra costs linked to deprivation, and complained that to not fund such costs was "a funding cut by the back door".

Referring to Cllr McColl's planned meetings with ministers over their funding, Labour councillor David McBride added: "It's time we heard more fighting talk from the leader of the council. The time for cosy chats is over."