THE ruling Conservative group on Swindon Council wants to raise council tax by 9.5 per cent but would still need to make cuts in services in order to balance the budget.

The suggestion follows a disappointing cash allocation from the Government, which fell short of the council's expect- ations and has deepened the town's budget crisis.

So today the Evening Advertiser asks whether you, the people of Swindon, are happy to pay that amount the equivalent of an extra £75 a year on a Band D property or whether you would pay more to stop services being cut.

The details of the Tories' framework budget proposal will not be revealed until a cabinet meeting next Wednesday. It will then go to public consultation and the opposing groups will put forward their own ideas.

But it is clear that if the tax rise is not higher, budget reductions will need to be considered across the board, with the voluntary sector and leisure services expected to be hit the hardest.

Steam museum is being touted as a major white elephant and could face cuts to opening hours.

The borough is so short of cash that the council's lead member for finance, Coun Nick Martin, has even suggested that redundancies may need to be made in some departments.

He said: "Budget reductions fundamentally affect people it stands to reason that one of the major areas of cost at any large organisation is the staff."

Coun Martin (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms) said it was almost inevitable that the education and community department headed by Dr Mike Lusty would need to be split up. That could mean vast reductions in the community pot, threatening the already struggling youth service and the voluntary sector.

"It's no good sticking our heads in the sand," he added. "Next year's budget has to be able to survive and that means we won't be able to meet our current obligations in some areas."

Labour leader Sue Bates (Gorse Hill and Pinehurst) said her group would not accept any reductions in the voluntary sector budget.

She said: "I think that budget has already been cut as far as it can be over the years and if it were cut again it would have a huge impact on the community.

"There will be hard choices to be made but things would look a lot healthier now if the other groups hadn't reduced our council tax increase in this year's budget."