INCREASES in council tax are likely to be smaller than expected in Worcestershire this year following a surprise announcement.

Worcestershire County Council has scaled down its proposed tax rise following a public consultation on its spending plans from an increase of 3.5 per cent to 2.94 per cent – a saving of £5.52 for the average household.

The Conservative leadership has also proposed spending an extra £3 million on improving pavements and footpaths, along with an extra £2 million on anti-flooding measures.

A freeze on members’ allowances is also planned, with cash saved being put towards helping businesses through the recession.

A final decision on the whole 2009/10 budget will be made next week.

Proposing the revised budget for approval, Conservative cabinet member for finance Adrian Hardman said the council had taken the public’s concerns on board. “People are often cynical about our consultations, but three things came out of it very clearly this year,” he said. “There was clearly a mood that the public wanted to see lower council tax increases.

“People applauded the action we’ve taken on urban road renewal but they wanted to see more on pavements and footways. And we’ve also been told by parish councils that they want to see the work we’ve done on flood mitigation continue.”

Coun Hardman said the smaller council tax rise was possible because more tax had been collected this year than anticipated.

If agreed by the full council next week, it will see residents living in Band D houses paying an extra £28.95 for the county council’s share of council tax, rather than the extra £34.47 proposed in the draft budget in December.

District and parish councils and the police and fire authorities must still agree their rises before final bills can be calculated. Overall, bills are still expected to rise by more than £40 for the average household.

The decision to spend an extra £3 million on pavements and footpaths came after it was revealed last year that more than half were not up to scratch.

It means the council will spend £4.5 million on footways over the coming year – but this is still short of the £40 million needed to bring all footways up to scratch.

The council also plans to spend £275,000 on helping businesses through the credit crunch. Most of the cash will come from a Whitehall grant but £22,000 will be raised by freezing councillors’ allowances.