EXCLUSIVE By JULIE FREER, Local Government Reporter: COUNCIL tax bills in Bolton are set to rise by 6.9 pc in April.

The increase is likely to be in line with the national average but less than earlier forecasts of about 8pc.

The council will also make cuts of £7.1 million to services, with the loss of 70 jobs.

However, there are expected to be community care jobs created in social services and the overall reduction is likely to be about 30.

Council leader Cllr Bob Howarth said he was hopeful that compulsory redundancies could be avoided.

"We do have a re-deployment policy and we will do all we can to avoid having to make people redundant. But it does get more difficult every year."

The council tax figure will be rubber-stamped first by the managment and finance committee on Thurday and then by the full council on February 26.

The council will also agree to spend up to its capping limit of £213.3 million.

Cllr Howarth said: "We have tried to keep the increase as low as we can, but it is still a big rise.

"There is no doubt that the Government has transferred the burden of taxation from income tax to local government."

The rise is lower than expected for three main reasons:

The amount charged by the county's fire and police services is lower than expected.

The teachers' pay rise has been phased over two years.

There has been prompt payment of council tax bills and recovery of debts from the poll tax. WHAT YOU WILL PAY Council tax 1997-98M-IIncrease

A £522.33...£33.73

B £609.38...£39.35

C £696.44...£44.98

D £783.49...£50.59

E £957.60...£61.83

F £1,131.70...£73.07

G £1,305.82...£84.32

H £1,566.98...£101.18

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.