SENIOR Tory councillors in Bromsgrove are preparing to venture off on their summer holidays with a niggling worry in the back of their minds.

Next May many will offer themselves for re-election to the district authority, but early indications are that, just a month before the polls, council tax bills will, for the second year running, rise by double figures.

Councillors had hoped this year's 26.6 per cent hike, the second largest in the country, would give them a breathing space for a more modest "election" increase in 2003.

Some Conservative councillors have privately voiced their fears to the Advertiser/Messenger after recently hearing council treasurer Andrew Fisher give the council's cabinet his medium-term financial forecast.

One, who declined to be named, said: "The council can expect to have to fork out an extra half million pounds next year which could push up council tax bills by 10 or 12 per cent.

"This is the last thing we want in an election year, especially after the big rise this April."

Among the big bills the council faces is £100,00 for management restructuring, an additional £70,000 on increased employees' National Insurance contributions and more than £50,000 on concessionary fares.

This last figure is set to rise because, from April, the qualifying age for men drops to 60, the same as women.

Figment

Council leader Councillor Dennis Norton (Con-Norton) said: "This increase is a figment of the imagination of whoever it is who has made the claim

"We are, of course, continually monitoring our expenditure to ensure that all budgets are observed.

"This process enables us to take corrective action if this becomes necessary.

"The one thing I am deeply worried about is the possibility that Bromsgrove may have to fund those authorities which have been less well able to manage their financial affairs despite receiving hefty government support.

"If this fear becomes a reality, then Bromsgrove tax payers will, indeed, suffer higher tax increases.

"They will not be of our making, however."

Labour group leader, Cllr Peter McDonald (Uffdown and Waseley), said: "Any rise in council tax is of this Tory administration's making - no-one else's."