The Government has cut £7.7 million from Leicester City Council's budget this year.

Transport improvements, youth support services and school computer schemes will be hardest hit by the cuts.

The cuts come on top of £19 million of savings which will be made over the next three years.

Some £1.3 million has been cut from the transport improvement budget, while a £500,000 grant to help schools improve IT facilities has been axed.

Meanwhile, £2.5 million has been cut from the education budget, which does not directly affect schools, but instead pays for play projects, young carers groups and family intervention projects.

However, city leaders say they have managed to plug the financial hole by moving money around within their budget.

Council leader Veejay Patel said it was the biggest challenge the council has faced for many years.

"These are the toughest cuts imposed on local government since the 1940s,'' he said.

"The government cut £2.5 million of education funding but we decided that it was the wrong thing for them to do. We have worked hard to move money around to continue these important projects."

Coun Patel has previously predicted that the council will have to make £100 million worth of cuts to services and axe 1,000 jobs during the next four years.

Teenage support service Connexions will lose £300,000 of funding. Leicestershire County Council cut funding to the service by £290,000 earlier this month.

Other cuts include £80,000 which was to be spent on new speed cameras, £95,000 on speeding enforcement, £450,000 on reducing congestion in the city, £102,000 to tackle violent extremism and £39,000 to tackle substance abuse by young people.

The £267,000 fund for free swimming for young people has been cut.

However, the council is using £25,000 of its own reserves to continue the scheme until the end of August during the summer holiday.

A further £172,000 which is used to fund breakfast clubs and after- school clubs at school has been cut, but the council is considering whether they can be continued using other money within the authority.

The council's education boss, Vi Dempster, said: "If the council hadn't found the money to continue these projects we'd have lost play projects, young carers groups, and family intervention projects. These affect some of the most vulnerable people in society."

Ross Grant, leader of the Conservative opposition group on the council, said: "These cuts are necessary and have been spread out across various areas of council spending to avoid hitting frontline services.

"Schemes which are not targeted to those who need it most, such as free swimming for all children, are among the schemes which have lost funding."

All of the cuts have to be made within this financial year.

Earlier this month, spending cuts of £12.5 million were made to the county council's budget,