I am grateful to the editor for agreeing to print this letter, confirming the misprint in the Guardian article on the council's budget this year. The article incorrectly stated that the grant to the Centre for the Environmental Initiatives (now Ecolocal) will be reduced by an incredible £18 million over three years.

In fact, our original proposal was to reduce the grant by £22,000 over the next two years, and following a wide consultation with residents and groups including Ecolocal, the proposal was amended to a reduction of £18,000 over a three-year period.

The council regrets having to make this reduction, and we are committed to our continued work with Ecolocal to find additional funds to help both them, and Sutton's community. The council must also bring in additional external funding to manage the reduction in our environmental sustainability budget.

Sutton has a good track record for securing funds and we have already met with Ecolocal to identify potential projects for our community such as supporting local businesses to become more sustainable and encouraging volunteering.

Ecolocal and the Sutton Environment Network provide an extremely valuable resource to our community, however because of an extremely low increase in our government grant this year of just 1.7 per cent, we have been forced to take difficult decisions.

This is particularly disappointing given the Audit Commission rates Sutton as one of the top performing council's in the country. It is a pity that budgets do not follow performance.

Coun COLIN HALL Deputy Leader of Sutton Council