Castle Point councillors have recommended a 5.4 per cent rise in the borough's contribution to the council tax.

At a meeting of the finance and policy committee, members announced that a band D household will now have to pay £133.56 towards the tax, a rise of £6.84 on last year's Castle Point contribution.

The total tax will be formally announced at a meeting of the full council on February 22, when Essex County Council and Essex Police Authority have revealed what their precepts will be for the coming year. The current bill for band D is £747.36.

However, councillors rejected advice by the council's director of finance that nearly £250,000 of savings also needed to be made to the annual budget.

They were told that if budgets continued at the present rate, in a few years' time the council's reserve funds would be severely depleted.

The reserve fund is cash kept aside for unforeseen emergencies, and officers had advised that it be maintained at a level of £750,000 which could only be done with cuts.

But, speaking after the meeting, council leader Dave Wells said: "We refuse to reduce services. We have been balancing the books for a long time now as well as improving the borough. At some point decisions will have to be made on the reserves, but right now we will not make any cuts in council services."

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