Council tax set to go up by5 per cent

The five per cent rise is the equivalent of £5.72 a year or 11p a week to a total of £117.95.

Added to this are Wiltshire County Council's share, parish and town councils, the fire authority and police authority.

For a Band D householder in Devizes next year's Council Tax bill will be £1,281 while in Marlborough the bill will be £1,229.

To keep the increase at no more than five per cent Kennet will take £257,780 from its reserves of £3.8million.

For the 2005/06 year Kennet received an increase in its grant from central Government of £133,000.

Councillor Chris Humphries, the leader of Tory controlled Kennet District Council, said the increased expenditure that Kennet would have to make on recycling, inflation and other costs amounted to more than £700,000.

He said to get to the levels that the Government thinks Kennet should be charging would have resulted in a council tax increase of 12 per cent this year but said Kennet was restricted to five per cent because of the threat of capping by Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford.

Coun Humphries said the five per cent increase represented "fantastic value for money" for council tax payers in Kennet.

Labour councillor Margaret Taylor accused Coun Humphries of "Government bashing."

Coun Taylor said: "One of the things that the Conservative group could have done to save themselves money was the rise in members' allowances that was sprung on us and which could sensibly have been left to another year to consider.

"The Government looks at the reserves that Kennet has and it's true we have substantial reserves."

In 2005/06 Kennet's budget for both revenue spending and capital projects will be £36.7million.

The capital budget of £5.2million includes the major refurbishment of Devizes Leisure Centre. This will cost £1.8million starting in April and will take a year to complete.