A BOROUGH council has set its final budget and made plans to protect long-term projects when it is replaced with a unitary authority.

Sedgefield Borough Council's budget for 2008-2009 is the last to be determined by the authority before local government in County Durham is reorganised.

The county and seven district councils will be replaced with a unitary authority next April.

The borough council said it aimed to go about business as usual without burdening the new authority with its spending plans. Members agreed to increase its share of council tax by three per cent, which will add 11p a week for owners of band D properties and 7p a week for band A residents - two thirds of taxpayers in Sedgefield.

Plans to upgrade IT equipment and the Local Improvement Programme grants scheme will be put on hold.

Staff savings will also be made, so the borough council's spending does affect the council.

The council's budget allows for a capital programme of £20m in 2008-2009.

A budget plan highlights major projects the council wants to undertake in its last year and aims to persuade the new council to keep them.

They include the continued exploration of large-scale voluntary transfer of social housing, switching its housing maintenance services to Mears, and a coalfields community regeneration plan.

The renewal of Spennymoor and Newton Aycliffe town centres and the merger of the council's training service with Bishop Auckland College, creating a construction training centre, are also key projects.

Leader Agnes Armstrong said: "We have made promises to the people of the borough, particularly in areas of regeneration and intend to carry them out.

"We are quietly confident that the new unitary authority will back our transition plan because it ticks all the boxes about health, well-being and social prosperity."