Hillingdon Council has denied child services will suffer after they lost a High Court fight for fairer funding of court costs.
Many local authorities across the country also lent their weight to the case, which began on October 23 after a 2,500 per cent increase in Judicial Care Proceedings court costs was imposed in May.
The costs could lead to a £100,000 shortfall in Hillingdon and it is feared child services could suffer as a result.
Councillor Ray Puddifoot, leader of Hillingdon Council, said: "We felt we had a strong case, supported by the NSPCC and the Law Society.In Hillingdon we are financially sound and able to meet the additional cost, but this is money that should be spent on service improvements not shortfalls in Government funding.
"Hillingdon Council is committed to ensuring the safety of the children and young people of the borough and will not shy away from challenging central Government to meet the costs they impose on our residents.
"This is a disappointing result although we stand by our decision to take this action as it highlights our concerns about the way in which these costs were imposed on local authorities and ultimately the local tax payers."
