FYLDE Council's leader says he believes a massive tax increase can be avoided without cutting services.

As The Citizen revealed last week, the council would need an estimated 26 per cent tax increase for 2003/2004 to keep spending at current levels.

But Cllr John Coombes believes the council can save enough money to reduce that figure by improving its policies.

"We are working to get it down and we are determined to get it down," said Cllr Coombes this week.

"There is an awful lot to do, but in a recent exercise council officers managed to shave £20,000 of expenses by changing procurement .

"We can make savings when they need to be made -- in the past, perhaps, the will hasn't been there to make those savings."

Cllr Coombes has also pledged to boost council reserves, which have fallen by more than £1.5m in the last three years.

"As a coastal authority, we are supposed to have so much money in place for contingencies, such as flooding. That has been dipped into in previous years and we have not got the amount of money that previous administrations used to have."

He lay the blame for the rise squarely at the door of the previous Independent-led administration, but Cllr Paul Hayhurst, who led the authority until the May elections, said the council had been left in a good financial situation.

"When we set budget for this year, we set in motion a review, looking at all aspects of the council's work, to see what savings could be made without cutting services," said Cllr Hayhurst: "There were a lot of areas to look at."

"The Conservatives were elected because they had a lot of things they wanted to bring in -- they didn't tell the public they would have to pay for it through council tax rises.

"We have just been told by the Audit Commission that our reserves should be in the region of £400,000.

"We left the authority with £850,000, double the reserves we should have had, according to the Audit Commission.

"Fylde is one of the only debt-free local authorities in Lancashire, and also has £2m in capital reserves. The borough is in an extremely healthy economic state, but if the Conservatives decide to spend as they said they would, council tax rates will have to go up.

"Fylde has always been one of the lowest council tax areas in Lancashire -- if this 26 per cent rise goes through, it will probably be the highest."