Wiltshire County Council is preparing to announce its budget which could see council tax bills rising by an average £56 a year. SARAH SINGLETON looks at the harsh choices facing the Tory leadership.

The RUH hospital hopper service, arts grants and the popular parish lengthsman service are under threat if Wiltshire County Council is called in by the Government and the budget is capped.

In the final weeks before the final budget is presented, county council leader Coun Jane Scott is hard at work pushing for savings in an effort to bring the increase to around six per cent on council tax which would add an average £56 to council tax bills.

The draft budget suggests the increase will be nearer seven per cent with a budget of £377.8 million, but with the Government settlement still to be announced, nothing is certain.

Last year the increase on council tax was 10.8 per cent.

Coun Scott said 31 local authorities with increases of over five per cent had already received warnings from the Government but so far Wiltshire was in the clear and she was confident this would remain the case if the county's council tax increase could be kept at six per cent.

"They wouldn't cap us until we had agreed the council tax," she said.

"And if that happened we would have to start all over again and rebuild the budget. That would cost around £100,000 and we would have to make cuts."

She hopes efficiency savings will bring the increase down from a predicted 6.98 per cent to around six per cent a saving of around £1.3 million.

Departments have been asked to look again at the way they work, and how the process might be made more efficient.

"We want to see if we do things smarter, maybe using IT, how we can cut back on the budgets without affecting our statutory duties and the services we provide," she said.

"But the county council is a very lean machine, which was borne out by the Audit Commission, which awarded us four out of four for our use of resources."

The final level of service provision is also dependent on the outcome of several large grant applications, including money for recycling and waste initiatives.

Even at six per cent the proposed increase is still way above the 1.3 per cent inflation level.

Coun Scott blamed the rise on the increase demand on services providing education for 155 more pupils in schools this year, disposing of 16,000 tonnes more rubbish and caring for 230 more elderly people.

The budget has also been hit by inflation in the cost of services exceeding general inflation levels including a 45.3 per cent rise in the cost of placing vulnerable children in care through independent agencies.

The county council has also lost £5.5 million the Government calculates it is entitled to through a floors and ceilings system introduced to help local authorities which have lost out through a funding calculations.

This equates to about three per cent on the council tax.

A list of service savings has been drawn up, including the loss of the parish lengthsman scheme and a reduction of about two thirds in the level of arts grants to bodies such as the Salisbury Playhouse and Corsham Festival.

Other victims could be a reduction in gully emptying and the loss of subsidy for evening and Sunday bus services, which would save £250,000.

But the administration has also set aside £2.7 million for reserves and Coun Scott said no final decision had been taken about how the savings for the reserves and money for non-statutory services would balance out.

The county council intends to borrow £3 million to spend on highway maintenance with a priority on mending potholes allowing for the surface treatment of two million square metres of road.

"We have to keep our frontline services going strong, such as education and social services," said Coun Scott.

"Schemes like the lengthsman service are very important."