A DECISION to hike Ilminster’s council tax precept by 20 per cent has been slammed as a “disgrace” by the vice chairman of the town council’s resources committee.

Ilminster Town Council agreed the increase at its latest budget meeting in a bid to meet rising costs, but now Cllr Don Kinder has criticised the increase saying that the council has not done enough to find alternative ways of saving and raising money.

The decision was made to increase the council’s precept by 20 per cent, meaning that Band D households will now have to pay £145.24 a year, compared to last year’s £120.83.

Cllr Kinder, a member of the UKIP party, left the meeting early and was unable to vote on the subject, but said he would have voted against the council.

He said: “I think that it is a disgrace, they have done nothing to reduce expenditure.

“It is just ridiculous.

“They raised it by 1.5 per cent in Chard and we have just raised it by 20 per cent.”

He added: “The council has increased the town precept by over 20 per cent in three of the last five years.

“At the same time they have done nothing to cut back the expenditure of the council, leaving the council tax payer to pick up the bill.

“If you look at what was SSDC precept for last year, and the amount of council tax you pay for Ilminster, you will find there is very little difference.

“It is my opinion that this increase was a disgrace and to my mind showed a cavalier attitude to the tax payers of Ilminster.”

Phillip Wyatt, the chairman of the Ilminster Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also called on the council to look at ways of saving money and said that he would only approve of the increase if the added resource was reinvested back into the town.

He said: “If it has got to be inflicted on us, then as long as they invest it back into the town it is ok.

“I think they do need to look into (expenditure cuts) more than using the first option of putting up taxes.”

However, the town council has defended its decision and said that it was forced to hike the precept due to mounting costs.

Speaking after the budget meeting on Tuesday, town mayor Cllr Rose Neave said: “Ilminster is a vibrant community and the town council wants to maintain services and safeguard the amenities it provides.

“In setting the budget for the next year we have looked at past budgets and forwards to the next couple of years when we know that Government Grant will be reducing - a loss of income for the town council exceeding £20,000 over a five-year period.

“The budget we have set will enable us to maintain our existing services and also consider some individual projects such as, demolishing the old football stand and improving record keeping relating to the cemetery and play equipment.”

Ilminster town councillor Val Keitch, who also represents the town at the district council, said: “If you look at the budget papers you will see the raise is necessary if we are do the things that we need to do as a town council. That increase was necessary.

“We went through and looked at potential savings and made the decision that the potential savings would have made very little difference.

“We have made savings, for example there will be no grant next year. The council did make every attempt to do so and we were there until 10.30pm.”

Cllr Philip Burton, chairman of resources committee, added: “It has gone up 47p a week. Without doing that we wouldn’t be able to fund some of the projects we fund that are very important.

“Funding is being reformed by county and we had to do this if we want to keep what we have, such as good workmanship and staff. It is important we supply these things.

“We looked at everything we could possibly save and said yes or no.”