CHORLEY'S council tax payers have been spared bigger bills after town hall finance chiefs this week announced just a 4.5 per cent rise following massive savings.

It amounts to less than 10p a week extra for most Chorley households.

Chorley Borough Council's management and finance meeting was fully expected to vote in the increase on Tuesday night.

The rise was reached after severe management cutbacks which made massive efficiency savings.

Lancashire County Council has already come up with an eight per cent increase

Last year, Chorley's Band B payers forked out £639.46. This year, they will pay £690.69.

Council Leader Jack Wilson, said: "This is excellent news for Chorley council tax payers.

"If we did not cut back Chorley's council spending rate, then the rise in council tax could well have been around 32 per cent.

"This time last year we were asking people to fork out an additional 19.1 per cent council tax increase."

The council has also escaped financial penalties from the Government after sticking to its spending target.

The 4.5 per cent figure was achieved through a massive £500,000 saving after management restructuring, including radical changes in most council departments.

With this money the council has earmarked additional funds to go directly on services, including:

ZContinuing enhancements to Chorley town centre (£100,000)

ZExtra CCTV camera for the town centre (£15,000)

ZMobile CCTV camera for surrounding villages such as Coppull and Clayton (£30,000)

ZSafety improvements in play areas (£50,000)

ZAstley Park and other environmental improvements borough-wide - with financial help from lottery grants (£250,000)

Chief Executive Jeff Davies explained: "We have massively increased our expenditure on services throughout Chorley. This means improved services at relatively no extra cost.

"This was partly due to the effective savings made by removing a whole tier of management. This is radical downsizing that has not been attempted before in Lancashire - less burden means more money to be spent for Chorley."

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