HYNDBURN Council looks set to increase its share of the council tax by 8.2 per cent.

But its leader, Coun Peter Britcliffe, said services still had to be cut to keep the rise as low as possible.

The authority will finalise its budget at a meeting of the full council next Wednesday but the ruling group revealed its proposals at a cabinet meeting yesterday.

Last month, Coun Britcliffe said the increase in its share of the charge could be as high as 10 per cent, which prompted warnings from the Government that the council would be capped if it tried to impose an "excessive" rise.

The final bill will include charges set by Lancashire County Council, as well as Lancashire's police and fire authorities, and is expected to mean an overall increase of 3.8 per cent for ratepayers.

Coun Britcliffe went on: "We can't promise one of the lowest rises in the country, which is what this borough has had in the past, but it still represents good value for money.

"The Government tells us it has given us an extra £400,000 but that does not come near helping us to meet the increase in costs we are facing.

"I would like the Government to explain how we are supposed to find this money without serious service reductions or hitting the public through the council tax."

The ruling group will put forward a raft of cost-cutting measures at next week's meeting, including deleting some vacant positions, reducing the budget for the cleaning and maintenance of the borough's 82 bus shelters, reducing spending on tourism advertising and cutting down the opening hours at Hyndburn Sports Centre and Mercer Hall Leisure Centre pool.

They also plan to charge theatre groups to sell tickets through Accrington Town Hall's information centre, increase fees at the cemeteries and crematorium and to pull the plug on a £7,221 contribution to the Dial-a-Ride service.

But money from the council's capital budget will be spent on projects including improving children's play facilities and refurbishing Broadway.

Last year the council was facing a £1.8million overspend and Coun Britcliffe said a lot of hard work had been put in to overcome the financial crisis. At the end of this financial year the overspend, which was expected to be around £196,000, would be around £162,000.

He said: "Significant improvements have been made to budget monitoring and cost-cutting and we are committed to continuing this policy."