AN ACCOUNTANCY blunder has meant Beverley Town Council hiking up its council tax levy by 23 per cent.
The town council had set a budget it thought would cost people an extra £3 on average this year.
Instead, it is charging an extra £9 a head.
Paul McGrath, chairman of the town council's policy committee, says government changes made this year's calculation complicated and East Riding Council did not make the accountancy procedure clear.
He said: "I don't accept the error was on our behalf.
"East Riding Council has mismanaged it, as it has with other budgets.
"I would lay it fairly at the door of East Riding Council."
The mess arose following Government changes to the tax base, which effectively cut the amount Beverley Town Council would raise if it kept individual bills the same.
A £32,000 Government grant – paid to Beverley Town Council by East Riding Council – was given to cover the difference so bills would not have to go up.
But the town council did not take that into account and simply divided the amount it wanted by the number of households.
Added to that, the town council had already agreed to expand its services, which should have meant a 7.57 per cent increase.
The net result is people living in benchmark Band D homes within the Beverley parish boundary paying £9 more to the town council.
Caroline Lacey, head of finance at East Riding Council, said: "The council wrote to all parish and town councils in December and January advising them that changes to the council tax benefit system would result in a reduction in tax base and that, consequently, individual household billing amounts would increase if the town or parish council set the same precept as before.
"The council passed on a full grant received from Government to mitigate these changes. The distribution of funding ensured the average reduction to the money available to town and parish councils if they kept the billing amounts to individual households the same was only 0.39 per cent."
Following the increase, the town council now has a budget of £312,000.
Mayor Margaret Pinder says the budget was set so the council can expand its services and give value for money. The town council worked out what it felt was needed in total. It did not start out with a figure in mind for a percentage increase.
A typed explanation detailing the error and explaining what the extra money would be used for was handed out at a public meeting in Beverley's Toll Gavel Church.
The town council is hiring a small tractor for cutting grass verges and clearing pavements.
It is also promoting a wi-fi zone in the town centre and paying for two youth workers to work in the town, making up for what it sees as a shortfall in the service provided by East Riding Council.
Despite some doubts from opposition Conservative members on the town council, it has allowed funding for the creation of a sculpture park within the Flemingate development.
Those projects were all based on a planned budget increase of 7.57 per cent.
Cllr McGrath said: "We wish to increase our remit and what we do as a town council.
"We will provide the services that will give people benefits."
He admitted, though, that the average increase is triple what was planned, saying: "We'll give three times more value."
