Honiton Town Council approves council tax rise.

HONITON Town Council’s share of council tax will increase to 78p per household a week from April - after the proposal was rubber stamped at an extraordinary meeting.

The annual precept was set at �40.55 per household from �34.52 at a meeting of Honiton Town Council last Monday.

It was raised in a bid to ease the burden on community groups, which are expected to be hit by cuts to Devon County Council and East Devon District Council budgets.

Deputy Mayor Vernon Whitlock said: “This is quite a rise, but it still puts us lower than our neighbouring towns.

“Many local organisations are going to be in grave difficulty in the next financial year.

“It has been a difficult decision to make.”

l The council also agreed a budget of �36,000 for the proposed community centre complex, which means there will be two options available for going forward with the project.

It had been proposed to allocate �27,000 for the complex, however, this would only have allowed for one of the options.

The amount was increased to allow for either option to go ahead.

It will be up to a new council, due to be elected in May, to allocate the money.

The council has also set aside �10,000 in the budget for grants to local organisations and agreed to raise funding for youth support to �1,000. In addition to this, the budget for the Tourist Information Centre was raised from �9,000 to �10,000.