IF the terse exchange of views at last night's city council meeting represented the opening salvo of this year's local election campaign, then heaven help us all in the weeks to come.

After agreeing a 2.5 per cent rise in its part of the overall 7.79 per cent council tax increase in Worcester, Tory council leader Stephen Inman said it fulfilled his cabinet's desire to maintain frontline services while "working with available income".

In effect, as we observed when the rise was mooted before Christmas, he's had to choose between giving Aunty Mabel two bottles of Scotch, or leaving it at one so that little Johnny and Susie could be treated.

However, he gave the Government's "derisory" handout a yardstick by claiming that, had savings of £2.2m not been made in the past two years, it would have been 54 per cent.

Labour's Adrian Gregson, predictably, accused him of looking after his "Tory friends", and asked how the rise made Worcester a great place to live, echoing what many readers tell us - that he's "never known a less attractive Worcester to live and work".

In their criticisms of the Government and the sometimes shameful face of Worcester, they're both right, of course.

In effect, they're painting different parts of a grim landscape of the Faithful City.

What this city needs is for them both to realise that fact.

Until they do, it's the people they represent who'll continue to pay, whether that's in higher tax bills or by being short-changed in the services any civilised 21st Century community has a right to expect.