GOOD progress is being made on pruning the council's budget – with the target of an increase of around five per cent in sight.Council leader Ray Herring said there was still work to be done and a final figure was not yet ready.

GOOD progress is being made on pruning the council's budget – with the target of an increase of around five per cent in sight.

Council leader Ray Herring said there was still work to be done and a final figure was not yet ready.

"We are making good progress towards delivering a sensible council tax increase," he said.

The target had been to keep it down to a five per cent rise and councillors and officers had been working to trim the original budget by £900,000.

Both last year and this year unprecedented savings had been made, and the efficiency drive was ongoing.

Councillors were told that the majority of the increase in the budget was due directly and indirectly to extra duties placed on the council by Prime Minister Tony Blair and his government, which had not given grant aid to fund the work.