COUNCIL TAX bills in Blackburn are set to rocket by 17 per cent - despite the borough having a standstill budget for the fourth consecutive year.

In a stormy three-hour budget meeting the ruling Labour group blamed Government restrictions and a £1 million cut in the Government's revenue support grant for its share of the rise.

The rise is also made sharper by last year's one-off reduction of £50 resulting from the government's relaxation of grant repayments.

The threat of capping once again tied Labour to a standstill budget of £21.7 million for the fourth consecutive year, with Conservatives warning bills would be "sky high" if Labour was allowed to spend all it wanted.

The bills include a 5.5 per cent rise for Lancashire County Council's share, plus a charge for the police authority.

Labour shaved almost £1 million from original spending plans with the loss of 28 jobs, voting down alternative budgets from the Tories and Liberal Democrats. Conservatives wanted to close the museum's South Asian Cultural Gallery, shut the housing department's advice centre, scrap the borough barge project and the council's Shuttle newspaper and spend less on staffing community centres.

This would have produced a £20.8 million budget with the loss of 37 jobs, but a reduction of 50p per week on Band D charges.

Labour's savings of £968,500, were mostly in the development services and community and leisure service departments.

Blackburn's internationally-acclaimed museum will lose key staff and close in the mornings to save cash. Development services has been slashed by £431,500 with the loss of 12 jobs. Major cuts include savings of £50,000 on contractors' fees for refuse collection and £34,000 less for planned repair and maintenance of council properties.

Community and leisure services suffers cuts of £234,000 with nine job losses.

Conservatives identified £1.3 million savings , but Labour claimed their plans had not been properly costed and took no account of redundancy payments. Major Tory savings were £265,600 cuts in the housing department, the main item being the closure of the council's advice centre to save £207,500 with work being transferred to the Citizens' Advice Bureau which would get a £50,000 grant.

Plans to cut £442,000 in development services included savings on staffing and cleaning public toilets.

Putting Labour's budget, finance chairman Coun Bill Taylor said the tax rise was a large increase over last year, but entirely out of control of the Labour group.

He said: "The electorate has to understand that we are spending at the exact same level as last year but all of our council taxes are increasing. Our hands are tied." saying the party was determined to extract every possible penny from council taxpayers.

and claiming the sky would be the limit if the Government allowed Labour to spend all it wanted.

Final figures, including Lancashire County Council's precept and a charge for the police authority but excluding parish council charges are: Band A £516.77; Band B £602.90; Band C £689.03; Band D £775.16; Band E £947.42; band F £1,119.68; Band G £1,291.93; Band H £1,550.32.

People in parish council areas will pay an extra £6.45 to £19.36, depending on where they live.

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