£200 Council tax shock - but neighbours hit harder

The county and district contributions to the council tax bill amount to a 164 increase.

Rother District Council has upped its bill by 10.7 per cent - 11.11 extra a year, 88p a more a month.

East Sussex County Council have increased its portion by 19.6 per cent - 153 more per year, 12.75 more a month.

Sussex Police have raised their part by 40 per cent - an extra 28 a year, 2.33 extra a month.

Special expenses for Bexhill and Parish precepts for other areas of Rother round this up to around 195 increase on a Band D tax payers bill.

Band D for Rother tax payers is set at 1,178.14 for 2003/04.

This compares favourably to Eastbourne which has a Band D rate of 1,209.49 - a percentage increase of 23.60.

Hastings is also higher than Rother with Band D at 1,216.15 and a percentage increase of 20.30.

Rother leader Graham Gubby was confident that despite a worrying increase in county contribution to the overall tax bill, the final tax agreement for 2003/04 puts Rother in a good light. He said: "Four years ago, when the Conservatives took control of RDC we put in place a five year medium term strategy which included reducing our reliance on reserves to 'prop up' the council tax. The impact of the drop in interest rates has proved how prudent that decision was.

"Last year we took advantage of an opportunity to go debt free, the only authority in East Sussex, another financially prudent move saving the tax payer thousands of pounds.

"Our baseline is the lowest in East Sussex. Last year's annual tax bill for RDC was 104 despite what at the time was alleged to be an unjustified increase. In view of the Government's settlement this year we have again been proven to be prudent and capable of making sound financial decisions.

Late last year we consulted the public on our draft budget, at that time a prospective increase of 17 per cent but we consulted on 14 per cent. We secured overwhelming support to maintain services and to continue to improve he quality of life for our residents.

"Since then, without cutting services or reducing the quality of existing services, we have put together a budget increase of less than 11 per cent. Overall the council tax bills in Rother are still the lowest in East Sussex. I promise our tax payers that we will continue to keep a firm control on finances and we will continue to deliver excellent services that give real value for money."