Every person in Oxfordshire will be affected tomorrow by decisions on council tax, education spending and social service issues, writes Mark

Templeton.

Oxfordshire County Council meets to finalise its budget for the coming year. Among decisions likely to be rubber-stamped by a meeting of the full council include:

A rise in council tax for every home - thought to mean an increase of around £50;

A 1.3 per cent rise in budgets for the county's schools, and

Approval of £10m cuts to social services over the next three years.

The social services department has already been forced to close a number of old people's homes to make savings. It may now have to axe some senior staff to meet its target. Householders also face a 9.1 per cent increase in council tax. This will work out at around £50 for a Band D property.

The Labour group wants to peg the rise to 8.8 per cent increase to avoid a possible formal warning from the Government.

It also wants to plough an extra £1m each into social services and road maintenance as well as voting for an extra £428,000 for public transport. Education will also come under the spotlight.

Schools will get a 1.3 per cent increase each, a plan already blasted by some councillors who warned that schools faced a "bleak" year because of the small rise.

But it is the first time in nine years the budget has seen a growth.

It includes plans to set aside a 3.5 per cent pay rise for teachers, which has yet to be announced by the Government.

Story date: Monday 07 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.