COUNCIL tax payers in West Devon will face an average rise of eight per cent in the borough's rate demands in the coming year, after the authority shaved savings of nearly £500,000 in its budget.
Residents in a band D property will pay £134.20 — an increase of £9.94 a year.
Cllr Peter Hill, chairman of the council's policy and resources committee, said at Tuesday's meeting that it had been a 'grim' year in the budget setting process.
He said it was 'remarkable' the total budget increase had been kept down to less than two per cent.
Cllr Hill said: 'Due to the continuing reduction of the Government's support grant, our budget will only increase by 1.9 per cent.
'Achieving this position represents a huge success for the council, by minimising the council tax, preserving services and funding the unavoidable increasing legislative demands imposed by central government, such as the modernising local government agenda.'
And Cllr Hill paid tribute to the hard work carried out by the working groups and council staff during an 'onerous and difficult year'.
West Devon's budget for 2002/2003 was set at just over £6.1 million. The small increase represents extra spending for the borough in the coming year of just over £114,000.
Despite the financial constraints, West Devon managed to introduce several initiatives to benefit the community.
These include providing extra rate relief for sporting bodies and post offices, a weekly recycling collection, increased from the previous fortnightly service and help for businesses in the borough who suffered loss of income during the foot and mouth crisis.
A motion by Liberal Democrat group leader Nicholas Waterhouse to release an additional £75,819 into the budget from Ministry of Defence contributions to West Devon failed.
But councillors agreed it would be 'prudent' to release the money over several years, to avoid wide fluctuations in future council tax bills.
West Devon's council tax represents only a small portion of the total bill to rate payers.
Devon County last week raised its demand on a band D householder by 9.5 per cent to £766.44 — a tax hike of 18p a day for the average householder. Including parish council and police levies, the average total rate demand comes to £1,002.65 for the coming year.
l THE average Band D council tax in the Caradon district has been set at £941.25 per year. Of this, £711.40 will go to Cornwall County Council, £134.67 to Caradon District Council, £73.80 to the Police Authority and an average of £31.38 to town and parish councils.
Caradon's leader Cllr Eric Lewis said the increase in Caradon's part of the council tax amounted to just under 20p per week. 'This is less than a packet of crisps and will help to ensure that we are able to maintain our high standards of service to council tax payers.'