COLCHESTER Council is set to increase its share of council tax by more than £5.

The 2.97 per cent rise will bring in an extra £601,000.

It will mean Band D property owners will pay £190.62 – a £5.49 increase.

A report, set to go before the council’s scrutiny panel next week, said: “The proposal within this report is to increase council tax by £5.49 a year for a Band D property.

“The increase in the tax rate brings in an extra £0.35m with the growth in the borough bringing in just over £0.25m, resulting in an increase in council tax income of c£0.6m.

“When looked at alongside the inflation pressures alone of £0.8m shows that that given the reductions in Government funding council tax cannot cover some of the basic pressures.

“The budget therefore includes savings or additional income of almost £1.5m.

“This compares to £2.8m included within the 18/19 budget. A large proportion of savings continue to be based on proposals to work more efficiently and to maximise opportunities to increase income.”

Essex County Council is also planning to increase its council tax portion by 3.99 per cent.

This represents a £48.69 rise for band D residents.

For an average band ‘D’ property, the county’s share would be £1,270.44, a weekly increase of £0.94.