AN increase in Westbury’s share of the council tax has been agreed by the town council, to help pay for the services being taken over from Wiltshire Council.

In a recent council meeting, councillors voted in favour of a 4.5 per cent increase in their precept, its share of council tax, meaning the average D band household will pay an extra 31p per week, or £16 per year, with higher or lower bands paying proportionally more or less.

Councillors explained the increase is necessary due to several responsibilities which they have taken over from Wiltshire Council, including grass cutting, verge clearance, waste bin emptying, street cleaning and other services which all affect the appearance of the town.

Westbury Mayor, Cllr Gordon King said: “Owing to significant cuts to its budget by central government, Wiltshire Council is in the position now that it cannot continue to fund all of the statutory and discretionary services for which it has responsibility and have offered sizeable portion of these services to town and parish councils to operate if that is their wish.

“However daunting this may appear both in terms of responsibility and cost to us as tax payers, it nevertheless provides us, as residents, for the very first time to make and be responsible for the decisions that affect our lives and our town.

“We can decide, for instance to what standard and how often we want our amenity land to be cut including at the cemetery, the planting of the borders, the frequency of bin emptying, how many waste bins there are and where they are located.

“Westbury Town Council have been preparing for this eventuality for the last couple of years by raising its share of the council tax and that is why we have been able to keep these increases at a reasonable level of 31p.

“I have always believed that the very best decisions are those that are made as close to the point where they are implemented so I welcome this development.

“It’s about time we had the say in what happens in our town.”

The 4.5 per cent increase also allows Westbury Town Council to maintain two hours of free parking in all the public car parks in the town.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour and the rise will be added to council tax bills from April.