IN THEIR four budgets from 2000 to 2003, the MBI-led administration on Lancaster City Council imposed council tax rises averaging 10.33 per cent and left its successors with a projected 21 per cent increase for 2004.

So far the coalition has kept its promise to reduce the 2004 figure to single figures and to get the 2005 figure down to five per cent or less.

Cllr Whitaker (Letters, March 16) was right to point out how much better that record is - but the aim has to be to keep increases down year on year. To that extent I agree with Mr Mills (Letters, last week).

That is why we have a financial strategy that aims to keep increases below five per cent in 2006 and 2007.

So how are we doing? Already we have improved the benefits service - moving from being one of the worst 25 per cent of councils to one of the best 25 per cent - the planning service, by speeding up the handling of planning applications to meet all national targets, the waste handling and recycling service and the council housing service.

There is a lot more to do. We haven't made much impact on street cleansing yet and that clearly needs improvement. And although we now have the finance in place for an ambitious regeneration programme we still need to see it through.

The financial position has improved too. The Audit Commission said in December: "Improved financial planning processes have contributed to controlling council tax increases whilst maintaining a sound financial base for the future."

Again there is more to do. Mr Williams (Letters, last week), with whom I don't usually agree, was right to point out that no prior provision was made for renewal of the swimming pool tiling. This is only one of a number of instances where this is true.

Two years ago there was totally inadequate provision for the anticipated increases in pension costs, for predictable vehicle replacements, for repairs of buildings and for IT renewals. We have put the first two right, but buildings and IT renewals are still a drain on capital.

Unlike our predecessors we are not ignoring these problems in the hope they will go away. Neither do we intend to load the whole cost onto the council tax payer. That is why there will have to be 'tough and prudent management of the city's finances'.

Cllr Ian Barker, leader, Lancaster City Council.