Many voluntary organisations are incensed at losing money in the latest round of grants made by Brighton and Hove City Council.

The problems is not that the total has been cut but that it has been distributed using a new points system. There are some winners and many losers.

It's obvious from looking at the figures that more money needs to be available for some of these organisations. But where is the money to come from when the council is already poised to be overspent by £5 million this year?

Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Elgood has an answer that will not prove popular with most of his colleagues. It's to cut back allowances to what they were two years ago and use the spare annual £200,000 to top up the grants budget.

Coun Elgood has a point.

Councillors' allowances have risen sharply and the grants budget has not. Politicians who moan about the grants could easily take practical action.

But there will be an eventual saving on allowances anyway when the number of councillors is cut from 78 to 54.

If there were a further reduction in councillors to one a ward, they could still be paid a reasonable sum while the grants budget could soar. It's a point worth pondering. Meanwhile it will be intriguing to see which councillors, apart from Paul Elgood, will put their money where their mouths are.