ARE Worcester people paying the price for not paying enough council tax?

That was the question being bandied around the Guildhall, as city council chiefs were grilled over a cost-cutting plan which aims to shave £3.5 million off the city's budget over the coming years.

The Tory-led council has made it clear it holds the Government responsible for its dire financial straits, but on Monday night opposition councillors suggested the situation could have been improved had Worcester's council tax not been kept relatively low over recent years.

Labour councillor Marc Bayliss said at a meeting of the budget scrutiny committee: "If you set council tax below inflation for four years, then any cuts that happen are clearly going to cut deep. Why did we choose to levy a low rate if we thought it was going to be difficult to sustain the council in the future?"

Council chief executive David Wareing told the committee that higher tax rises in the past might have helped - but only a little bit.

"There could have been some mitigation of this problem if the council had decided to go with the maximum possible council tax rises," he said. "But it would not have solved the problem."

Worcester City Council only takes a small proportion of people's council tax each year - the vast majority goes to the county council and the police and fire services.

So even if the city puts its own tax up by five per cent, that only equates to an extra £7.25 for a Band D household to pay each year.

"We're talking about relatively small amounts of money with council tax," said leader Coun Simon Geraghty. "Council tax can not achieve the major savings we are going to have to find."

Even so, the council is considering a bigger tax rise in April to help it plug the hole in its budget. The Government, however, has said council tax rises must be substantially less than five per cent.

"I'm worried if we can get away with four per cent," Coun Geraghty said.