A SENSE of despair has descended on Kennet District Council after news that the cut in Government financial support next year is even worse than it forecast.

Councillors will once again be put in the position of not only looking for savings in their already trimmed-down budgets, but they will do so with the knowledge that the best they can achieve is a hike in their precept of 15 per cent, similar to last year's rise.

They have warned council tax payers that they face a rise in council tax, a cut in services, or both, after their revenue support grant from the Government was cut once again.

They heard last week that their grant is to be cut by £649,000, the equivalent of £22 council tax on a Band D property. Their worst-case scenario was a cut of £524,000 in their revenue support grant, the amount the Government pays them from business rates towards providing local services.

In the current financial year Kennet District Council's net revenue budget is £8,290,000 funded by £5,115,000 support grant and £3,154,000 in council tax.

A cut of £649,000 is obviously significant, says the council. It must lead to a cut in services, or a rise in council tax, or a combination of the two.

Coun Chris Humphries, leader of the council, said: "Here is an organisation with a £28 million turnover and the Government is short-changing us. You can't run a community organisation if you haven't got the money to do it.

"We are almost being put in a position of cutting one complete service. But everything we do is important and I just despair of how we are going to get by next year. We will have to go to our council tax payers and tell them, if you want services, you are going to have to pay for them. But they are already paying a lot and swingeing increases are expected at county council and police authority level. Of course, this year, there is the fire authority precept to pay as well.

"I am asking people not to shoot the tax collector. Kennet's precept is one of the smallest amounts on the council tax bill each year, but our name appears at the top of the invoice because we have to collect council tax for everyone else.

"It is most ironic. The amount people pay to Kennet is a small proportion of the whole bill."

And there is no end in sight for the anguish of council officers. Two years ago, councillors were forced to find £1.2 million savings, which resulted in the redundancy of five senior managers and the failure to replace a number of more junior staff when they left. A

similar exercise is now needed and Coun Humphries puts the onus fair and square on the back on the Government. He said: "We have made £2 million savings in the last three years. We can't have been that wasteful in the past."

He said the Government settlement means that Band D householders will be paying a £146 a year precept for Kennet services, instead of the present £106. "And what is worse, we know damn well we're going to get even less next year," added Coun Humphries.

Coun Jerry Willmott, chairman of the council's resources executive committee, said: "District councils deliver vital services to the public, such as waste and environmental protection.

"If Kennet District Council is forced to put up the council tax to protect these services, then they should not be blamed for doing so by the Government who placed them in this dilemma in the first place."