THE decision by Tavistock Town Council to demand a four-fold increase in its council tax means ratepayers throughout West Devon will also pay more, leading borough councillors have warned.

The huge increase is to pay fees of an ongoing legal battle over renovations to properties owned by the town council, and to bolster the authority's empty coffers.

But the knock-on effect of the decision means ratepayers from Meeth in the north of the borough to Clearbrook in the south will be hit.

Cllr Dick Eberlie, leader of the borough council's Conservatives, said: 'The trouble is that the Government acts by reducing the amount of subsidy to borough councils where combined borough and parish budget increases exceed certain percentages — the Government subsidy to the borough is then reduced, without regard to who caused the excess.'

He said the proposed town council precept would mean the Government percentage threshold would be 'far exceeded' — it would therefore reduce the subsidy to West Devon by £72,000.

Cllr Peter Hill, borough independent leader, said: 'To make up this yawning gap in its own budget the borough would have to increase its own tax demand on all tax payers by £4.19 a year or else cut back significantly on the services it provides and activities it had hoped to support next year.'

Cllr Nicholas Waterhouse said: 'Every household in West Devon will be throwing up to a fiver into the Tavistock 'begging bowl' to pay for what he described as 'the Tavistock catastrophe'.

Tavistock mayor Roger Mathew said he was aware the rise in the town council's precept would have 'some effect' on the rest of the borough.

'Tavistock is not the only parish with an increased precept,' he said.

'Okehampton's is also up and a number of other parishes are.

'On the basis of advice we have been given by competent professional advisors we couldn't have reasonably made a different decision and the council is resolute in this.'

Roger Howard, Tavistock's town clerk, said the council had no option in raising the precept as it was not permitted by law to borrow money for revenue purposes.

'The only other option is to sell something but to get the sort of money we are talking about you would have to sell a couple of Duke Street shops and there's no way the council would do that,' he said.

Col Howard said the council had to make its decision before the borough's January 31 deadline.

'If we are successful and we get the money back, having prudently prepared for a worst-case scenario, we would have lots of money we didn't actually need.

'It would be up to the councillors to decide what to do with it, whether to bring things forward early like new play equipment, or they could squirrel it away and next year or the year after not raise the council tax at all.'

Col Howard said it was even 'theoretically possible' to give the money back in the form of a rebate, but it would be 'horrendously expensive' to administer.