Nearly £4 million of education cuts are planned to make up for the deficit in council finances.

Childcare, pre-school services and teacher numbers are facing cutbacks as part of Dumfries and Galloway Council's planned £12 million savings to bring the finances back into the black, says a report in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard.

The council's accountancy operations manager, Paul Garrett, in a report to the corporate policy committee explained that £3.9 million has to be found every year for the next three years.

Some cutbacks will be achieved by "corporate savings and efficiencies" such as reducing absence, travel costs and the delay in implementing the single status deal.

The rest of the money will have to be found through cuts in council services.

Figures show that £3.8 million will come from cutbacks in the education department over the three-year period.

These include a restructuring of education support staff and the cancellation of a contract with the conservation company Solway Heritage saving £621,000.

It has been estimated that reducing primary teaching staff due to falling school roles will save £100,000 per annum, a £261,000-a-year cut in the pre-school budget and a £286,000 annual saving in children's services.

The need for the cuts has been blamed on the low financial settlement received by the Scottish Government.

Mr Garrett states: "It is appropriate to note that, as it has been determined that these monies should again be allocated to councils based on budgeted council tax income, Dumfries and Galloway, as the council with the lowest council tax on mainland Scotland, again receives a disproportionately low share of the funding available and is effectively penalised for controlling costs and limiting council tax increases in the past.

"If the funding had been allocated based on shares of estimated need to spend, Dumfries and Galloway would have received approximately £2.1 million extra per annum and is therefore losing out by an accumulating £234,000 per annum."