RESIDENTS in Wyre Forest are set to see their council tax bills rise by almost two per cent as part of the district authority’s new budget proposals.

Wyre Forest District Council announced a series of spending proposals aimed at protecting frontline services as part of the proposed budget for 2018-19.

A public consultation on the proposals will be launched on Wednesday, December 20 and run until Thursday, January 2018.

The district council’s part of council tax bills has been frozen for the past two years but it is proposed to increase it by 1.94 per cent for 2018-19. This means an average Band D property will see an annual increase of £3.98.

Other main proposals include making extra efficiency savings of £50,000, investing £776,000 from the council’s reserves to fund a new five-year IT strategy, funding the community safety team at a cost of £30,000, providing £50,000 for the authority’s localism initiative and increasing income by £50,000 in the next financial year.

They are also looking to invest £38,000 at Spennells Valley nature reserve and retaining the £33,000 community leadership fund for charities and good causes in every ward.

Councillor Nathan Desmond, cabinet member for resources, said: “The financial climate remains challenging and we will continue to do our best with what we have.

“Over the last few years we have successfully reduced the amount of money we spend on running day to day services by changing the way we do things, simplifying processes, cutting out waste and making best use of technology and digital solutions to deliver services to local residents and businesses.

“At the same time we are growing our income and looking for innovative new approaches to work more closely with others to deliver projects and operate services or valued local assets.

“We have frozen Wyre Forest’s share of Council Tax for five years out of the last seven, with the increase in council tax since 2010 remaining well below the rate of inflation across that period.

“We are proposing to continue with this real terms reduction in Council Tax bills and are recommending that the contribution from local residents should go up by 1.94 per cent, which is well below the current three per cent rate of inflation.”

Spending proposals for the new financial year will be discussed by Cabinet on Tuesday, December 19.

Residents will be able to comment on the proposals by completing an online budget questionnaire on the council’s website www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk. Paper copies of the survey will also be available in all council buildings and libraries.