COUNCIL tax payers across Worcestershire are facing a 4.34 per cent rise in bills over the coming year.

That amounts to an extra £41 per year for a Band D property.

In a fiery full council meeting yesterday, held at the Civic Centre in Pershore because of County Hall's ongoing multi-million pound facelift, Worcestershire County Council's Tory leadership pushed through its budget for the coming year in the face of strong opposition from Labour and Liberal Democrat members.

The Conservative spending plan includes £15 million for improving county roads and £5 million to mitigate the effects of flooding. It also includes £5.6 million of unspecified cuts across all service areas, under a heading titled "measures to spend less and do less."

It was here that opposition councillors found cause to complain, with an amendment tabled by the Labour group proposing to remove the need for any service cuts through a radical restructuring of the council, involving a reduction in middle-management and a recruitment freeze on non-essential staff.

"This is a serious proposal," said Councillor John Buckley, the Labour group leader. "This is about saying to the people of Worcestershire that we have a different way of running this council. We should be looking closely at every post that comes vacant, proving it needs to be filled before doing so. We should have one single communications department, instead of every department having its own people - that alone could save us £1 million."

But the Conservatives rejected the alternative plan, with cabinet member for finance Councillor Adrian Hardman dismissing it as a "magic wand amendment".

"The Labour group are proposing cutting 260-360 jobs," he said. "That is a considerable cut in council staff - has he spoken to the unions about this? The fact is we have less middle managers than virtually any other comparable authority. There just isn't the scope for these cuts."

A separate amendment from the Liberal Democrats asked that an unexpected £900,000 windfall the county received in the form of a Government grant be spent on front-line services for vulnerable people.

But the Tory group voted to place the money in the bank to top up its savings, although council leader Councillor George Lord did pledge to "look again" at the issue later in the year when the country's economic picture is clearer.