Parents of children at the Palmeira Project in Hove have won the right for them to stay there for several more years.

It is being hailed as a victory by all those who felt the severely disturbed children would have been devastated had they been forced to move.

But there are serious implications for Brighton and Hove Council which already faces great pressure in funding its social care and health department.

The council is badly overspent on its social care budget. There will be large extra sums to pay as a result of looking after these children.

These five children are not the only ones in Brighton with severe problems who are in the care of the council. There are others who are equally hard to look after and who will also be a huge expense for the authority.

No one who has been involved in any way with this project can fault the tenacity with which the parents have fought their case and achieved their aims.

It is easy now to say the council should have acceded to the parents' wishes in the first place but officials and councillors sincerely believed a good service could be provided at lower cost.

This decision means continued excellent and expensive care for the five children but it may come at the cost of cuts to others who are also in great need.