LUDLOW Town Council is set to borrow £375,000 from the Government to help fund eight major projects. It is also planning a 20 per cent tax hike -- its biggest since 1998 -- to bring in a further £42,000 in the next financial year.

Mayor Graeme Kidd said the Government loan, Ludlow's first for several years, will give the town leverage to gain funding from other sources to finance improvements to the Castle Gardens, the Garden of Rest and the Wheeler Road play area for children.

The loan will also go towards increasing the use of the Linney car park, refurbishing the town's cemetery, improving the Buttercross, upgrading street lighting and enhancing the market square.

Coun Kidd anticipated that once tenders have been agreed work on many of the projects will be well under way by this time next year.

"We would expect to see some quite significant differences in and around Ludlow in the short term," he said.

The council is taking advantage of the current low level of interest charges to borrow at a fixed rate over 15 years. "The loan will offer us a big chance to start making a difference to local life and the local community. It will help us manage public spaces in a better way," he added.

Many of the planned changes result from a legal requirement to upgrade facilities for the disabled from October. The cemetery needs disabled toilets and better access. Toilets in the Linney also need to be brought into line with the new laws.

Upgrading is necessary in the Castle Gardens because at present wheelchair users have only one route in or out and cannot use the entrance from Dinham.

Most of the £42,000 increase in the Council Tax proceeds comes from the estimated £36,000 cost of servicing interest and repayments on the planned loan in 2004/05. At £428,580 the total budgeted spend is a relatively modest 4.1 per cent increase on the projected spend for this year.