COUNCIL tax for people living in Mid Sussex is to rise by £47 a year.

A rise of 4.5 per cent in the Mid Sussex District rate was fixed last night.

But increases from other authorities will take families' total tax bills up by £47 to an average of £762.72, an increase of 6.6 per cent.

The figure covers all services provided by Mid Sussex, West Sussex, parish councils, and Sussex Police.

The Mid Sussex increase adds just under £4 a year to the cost of district council services such as refuse collection and environmental health.

But on top of that, West Sussex is asking for another 77p a week on average towards services which include schools, roads, and social services.

The Sussex Police share rises by 6p a week and parish councils want an average 2p a week increase.

The size of final bills will depend on individual tax bands and allowances.

The new Mid Sussex tax Band D average of £92.70, up 7p a week, was approved by the council meeting in Haywards Heath.

Policy and Resources Committee chairman Tom O'Hara said that since 1996 Government grants to the council had been cut by £1,439,000, or nearly six per cent.

Inflation had increased by 13.4 per cent since 1995.

Mr O'Hara said that without the council's strategy of spending having to be matched by income by 1999, inflation alone would have led to council tax increases of 45 per cent since 1995, instead of the current of 28 per cent.

He said the council would also have faced reserves plunging to £2.4 million instead of the expected £11 million, and day-to-day spending would have been £3.6 million higher.

Mr Hara said: "All this has been achieved without major cuts in services. In fact quite the opposite - new services have been run to the tune of £918,000."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.