HOUSEHOLDERS in East Lancashire will surely gasp today at the forecast that the county's council tax is set to rocket by almost eight per cent.

For even the previous prediction of a 5.8 per cent increase -- put forward in County Hall agenda papers only days ago -- was steep enough to bewilder and annoy taxpayers.

After all, they see the rate of inflation at its lowest for a generation and even mortgage lending rates markedly below either of these percentages that Lancashire County Council has come up with in the space of only a few days.

And when personal incomes and pay rises are being pegged at levels much closer to the 38-year low of 0.9 per cent to which inflation fell last month, they contrast glaringly with the increase now being pencilled in by county councillors for households in East Lancashire where tens of thousands of wage-earners receive considerable less than the national average.

To such people, the £858 that Lancashire County Council is poised to levy for 'average' Band D properties -- in addition to the council tax that their district local authorities will charge -- is a steep item indeed.

It may be that, as county councillors today complain, that the government has left Lancashire short-changed in giving the county one of the lowest financial settlements in the country and has added to the difficulty by saddling it with extra expenditure for such things as teachers' pay and the disposal of fridges that can no longer be got rid of in landfill sites.

But, even so, the passing on of the problem to council tax payers in the form of an increase almost eight times the rate of inflation will turn many householders into disgruntled voters -- especially if they see other local authorities coming up with significantly lower increases.

Eyes will now be firmly focused on the percentages that the unitary authorities of Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen arrive at -- as a measure of how well or badly the County Council runs its finances.