Norwich charity The Garage says council support is essential

The Garage runs classes, events and intervention programmes in Norwich and King's Lynn

A charity that supports young people in Norfolk said funding from local councils was "essential" for the work it did.

It comes at a time when local authority finances are increasingly stretched.

The Garage, which provides performing arts training at sites in Norwich and King's Lynn, said grants were vital in "a tough landscape".

The charity's Adam Taylor said: "If we didn't get that money, we would have generated a deficit."

Earlier this year, the Local Government Information Unit warned that many councils were in a "ruinous financial situation".

It said more than half the councils that had responded to its survey said they were likely to be unable to balance their books in the next five years.

Adam Taylor said council grants were "essential" for the charity's work to help "transform people's lives"

The Garage works with all ages but has a particular on focus on young people.

Mr Taylor said it received a total of about £25,000 from the councils in Norwich and West Norfolk as well as Norfolk County Council.

"On paper it sounds tiny, right?" he said.

"But that's incredibly important. On our turnover of £1.7m last year, we generated a surplus of under £5,000. Without [council support], we'd be eating into our reserves."

Financial management of councils is under scrutiny with local elections taking place across England soon.

In Norfolk, Norwich City Council is the only authority holding elections this year, with 13 of its 39 seats up for grabs. The council spends about £109m a year on local services.

It had been run by Labour since 2012 but the party lost overall control when four councillors resigned last November, leaving it with 19 seats.

Beth Jones said Labour had protected "services that help the most vulnerable"

Deputy leader Beth Jones said funding from central government had fallen by 60% since 2010 and she was "incredibly proud" of the council's budget for the next year.

"To be producing a balanced budget in those circumstances without significant cuts to frontline services is a real achievement," she said.

Lucy Galvin from the Greens said "the key to council finances is listening to the public"

Lucy Galvin, who leads the Greens - the main opposition group on the council with 13 members - said the authority needed to spend its money "much more carefully".

Questioning £100,000 spent on a Love Norwich campaign aimed at cleaning up the city, she said: "All we've seen is an 8% increase on fly-tipping this year."

Liberal Democrat James Wright said the council needed to "be better at talking and working with the business community"

With three councillors, the Liberal Democrats are the other established party with seats in Norwich.

Leader James Wright said the council should be doing more to generate income by convincing companies that "Norwich is the right place to invest your money if you're a business and want to grow".

"We've got an awful lot of interims at Norwich City Council," said Independent Karen Davis

The Independent group is made up of the four councillors who quit Labour last November, although one of them is standing down at the election.

Leader Karen Davis expressed her concern about spending on high numbers of temporary staff at the council.

"We need some proper transparency on what is being spent where," she said.

Conservative Simon Thomas said the current administration "should be organising themselves better"

Speaking for the Conservatives, who last won a seat in Norwich in 2011, Simon Jones said the council had not been "organised efficiently".

Referring to a leaked report from 2020, he attacked the council for losing millions of pounds developing homes in Bowthorpe.

The Reform Party will have four candidates in the election while the Communist Party of Great Britain has one.

A full list of candidates standing in Norwich can be found here.

Voting takes place on 2 May, with votes due to be counted on 4 May.