PARISH councils in Pendle were handed a surprise early Christmas present last night in the form of a ten per cent increase in their revenue grants.

The individual councils were expecting to have a struggle on the financial front again next year after the council was recommended to keep their grants for 2003/04 at the same level as the current year.

But a battle between councillors led to them being increased by ten per cent -- with the overall sum for all 16 parish and town councils rising from £67,850 to £74,635.

Members at the Pendle Council meeting were asked to decide on the level of grants so that the smaller councils could start to work on their own budget.

Councillors were given the option of reducing the grants by five per cent to £64,480, increasing them by 2.5 per cent to £69,530 or keeping them the same. But these were ignored firstly by CounMohammed Iqbal, who proposed a three per cent increase, and then by Coun David Whipp who proposed an amendment that there should be a ten per cent rise. The amendment was carried.

The 16 councils will now have to consider their own budgets for next year and advise the borough council of the amount of precept to be added in their area, as an addition to the basic council tax.

For the current year all except Barley, Kelbrook and Sough and Salterforth had an addition to their council tax, the lowest being £1.75 in Reedley Hallows and the highest being £15.01 in Higham with West Close Booth.

Coun Whipp, who also sits on Barnoldswick Town Council, was delighted to hear his ten per cent increase would be granted. He said: "When the precept idea was brought in some years ago it was a blow for the smaller councils as the revenue grants were slashed considerably and a lot of the parishes have struggled to maintain services.

:We in Barnoldswick would like to see a fair sum coming from central funds, as would all the councils.

"The area's parishescarry out a lot of work that if they weren't doing would cost the borough council a lot more money.

"In Barnoldswick we have a town warden who does a lot of gardening and maintenance work"

A report to the council said: "Previous reports have reminded members that these grants are discretionary, that parish and town councils have their own precepting powers and that this council's support to parish and town councils is higher than other authorities in Lancashire."