THE decision to increase Marlborough's share of council tax by more than 16 per cent is a 'necessary evil', after the town council has taken on running more local services.

At Monday's extraordinary town council meeting, councillors agreed to set a precept of £182.67, which equates to an increase of 49p per week for Band D homes.

Councillors said the increase was down to taking on former Wiltshire Council services, such as the George Lane public toilets, pavement cleaning, grass cutting and possibly taking over the youth centre and former children's centre.

Coun Alexander Kirk Wilson said: "The precept has increased by an enormous margin and it is a most regrettable decision but it is a necessary evil as we cannot afford to lose these services for good.

"Obviously I would much rather that we did not have to do this increase but these are essential services. We have to pick up the slack from Wiltshire Council, who are constrained by central government.

"With these services being transferred over, it will be an uncertain time and this was a very difficult decision."

In December, councillors on the finance and police committee provisionally agreed to recommend a rise for the financial year of 13 per cent. That rose by another three per cent after the council decided that more services may yet be taken over.

Deputy mayor Mervyn Hall said: "We feel we can do a better job with local services than Wiltshire Council can. It will be a difficult period but we are confident we can maintain standards as they were.

"We have not taken this decision lightly. Either we put up the precepts or cut services altogether and that is not an option.

"We felt we need to maintain the service we provide and stop further degradation of services. It sounds a lot but it is only a small part of the total town council bills and is under 50p a week.

"Also for the first time we are not receiving general grants from Wiltshire Council. Last year we received £2,500 but for the last few years that has tapered off and now there is nothing and we are still working on devolving other services.

"We may take parcels of land to make sure they are kept in good condition so that is another additional cost."

To explain the reasoning behind the decision, residents are invited to an extended public question time at Monday's full council meeting at the town hall, which will start 30 minutes earlier than usual at 6.30pm.