TAXPAYERS in Bedale will pay more for the services provided by their town council next year, after councillors agreed 5.5 per cent increase to the precept.

Town councillors will ask Hambleton District Council, which collects council tax, for the higher amount, to help cover the costs of running the town’s public toilets, which have been transferred from district to town council hands.

The 5.5 per cent increase, which will see the precept - the town council’s ‘slice’ of council tax revenue - rise by £2,490 to £48,000.

There are about 2,500 electors in Bedale, so the increase amounts to about an extra £1 per year per elector.

Despite the hike in revenue, the town council will still have to fork over £10,880 from its cash reserves to balance the 2012/13 budget.

Members were presented with three possible options for the precept, at the meeting on November 14 - precept increases of one per cent, 5.5 per cent and 9.9 per cent.

Coun Clive Pointon said levying a 9.9 per cent rise would be “a scandal”, with Coun Malcolm Young adding that the 5.5 per cent “would not be such a bitter pill”.