Homeowners will have to dig deeper for fire protection.

The East Sussex Fire Authority is demanding an extra 17.5 per cent from the average Band D property owner.

Their bill will be almost £64, an increase of just under £10.

The news came hot on the heels of a 7.5 per cent rise in council tax bills for police services in Sussex.

For the first time, the average homeowner will pay more than £100 for policing.

The fire authority is now financially independent from East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council and part of the increase is to pay for a fire contingency fund previously covered by local authorities.

This year's budget of £32.7 million is almost 13 per cent higher than last year's.

The authority wanted a larger budget but was threatened with being capped.

The extra money will be used to improve fire safety services, including training firefighters to carry out home fire safety checks and fitting smoke alarms in homes most at risk.

There will also be new equipment on fire engines and training to allow initial medical assistance to be given to accident victims.

Councillor Mike Murphy, authority chairman, said: "The magnitude of the implications of capping being imposed by the Government upon East Sussex Fire Authority in its first year of financial independence would be severe, and yet the actual impact of authority costs on local council taxpayers is, in real terms, small, about six per cent of the overall council tax bill.

"While the Government has expressed its concerns about the costs of the fire service, the fact remains that even at an average cost of £63.80 per annum per household, fire authorities provide a good protection and intervention service to their local communities."

Sussex Police are using some of their additional money to hire an extra 150 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), bringing their strength up to 224.

PCSO's patrol streets, increase police visibility, reassure the public and tackle anti-social behaviour.

Chief Constable Ken Jones said: "PCSOs are already making a difference as we bring back neighbourhood policing. They reinforce, not replace, other methods of policing.

"They enable police officers to do their job differently and better, freeing up their time for the tasks which require their higher level of training and skills."

But the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said extra money should first be spent on increasing the number of beat officers, not PCSOs.

Sussex chairman Graham Alexander said: "If support officers are supplementary to a well-maintained police strength, that's great.

"But you get a sinking feeling that police numbers may fall to a whole range of people performing a whole range of functions."