LICKEY End residents will not face an additional charge to fund parish projects when council tax bills drop through their letterboxes in March.

At a parish council meeting held in the first school on Friday night, parish councillors voted not to set a precept - that is extra cash added to tax bills sent out by the district council to pay for services and amenities within the parish.

Chairman Charles Bateman said cash to pay for the hire of the school for meetings, is being met from £7,000 Bromsgrove District Council initially allocated to the parish council following last June's election when ten anti-parish councillors were elected.

Stationery and other sundry expenses are met by councillors from their own pockets, and the clerk is not paid for his services.

Before the election amid much controversy candidates pledged that if elected they would dissolve the council and not incur anything other than essential expenses until that aim was achieved.

The meeting voted to adopt the statutory model code of conduct for parish councils.

Mr Bateman told the meeting that the council now has its own website which can be accessed on www.bromsgrove.gov.uk/lickeyendpc

He thanked Cllr Denis Norton (Con), one of three district councillors who represent the Norton ward - which includes Lickey End, for attending the meeting and who promised, where possible, to take up concerns raised by parishioners.

Referring to an article in a recent edition of the district council's Chat magazine Mr Bateman advised that the authority planned to get tough with dog owners who let their pets foul footpaths and other public areas in the parish, providing the complainant was willing to give evidence in court.

The next meeting is in the spring.