Devon's political leaders have warned that frontline services to some of the county's most vulnerable people could be hit unless swingeing council spending cuts are reversed.
Party leaders on Devon County Council have written to Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles urging him to take action to prevent the latest wave of cuts.
Without Government action, the county council's annual budget will have been slashed from £600 million in 2009 to £400 million in 2017.
Conservative council leader John Hart has warned there can be no sacred cows because of the scale of spending reductions. And he has previously written to Mr Pickles saying the cuts were having a "devastating" impact on some services.
Now Mr Hart, Liberal Democrat opposition leader Alan Connett, Labour leader Richard Westlake and UKIP leader Robin Julian have joined forces to pen a letter and report to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
"It is probable that reductions to frontline services will be necessary," they said.
"These will affect vulnerable sectors of Devon's population and the council is very concerned about the impact of such reductions at a time when areas such as child and adult safeguarding, highway maintenance and youth services are high profile."
The letter outlined how Devon County Council is one of the lowest funded local authorities in the country. The party leaders said the Treasury had to amend its current funding formula for local government which penalises rural areas and benefits urban areas.
Rural authorities currently receive £336 a head in government grant while urban authorities get £481. Rural council taxpayers also pay an average of £88-a-head more than those in urban areas.
The department said reform had allowed councils to retain nearly £11 billion of business rates instead of returning it to the Government.
That allowed authorities "greater local control to increase their own income and support local firms and local jobs" which could deliver around an extra £10 billion to the wider economy by 2020.
Responding to the letter, Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis said: "Every bit of the public sector needs to do its bit to help pay off the deficit left by the last administration, including local government which accounts for a quarter of all public spending. Since 2010, public satisfaction with councils has increased whilst council tax has fallen in real terms.
"There is immense scope for saving taxpayers' money such as through cutting fraud, better procurement, more joint working and reducing back office administration.
"The council settlement is fair to all parts of the country – rural or urban, district or county, city or shire and we have provided an increased grant worth £9.5 million to help drive efficiency for rural councils.
"This Government has secured a good deal for councils, including funding to freeze council tax for a further two years and £3.8 billion for adult social care.
"The overall reduction in local government spending will be just 2.3% in 2015-16 with Devon's estimated as 1.6% so well below the national average."
