Parish councillors in Kempsey, near Worcester, have voted to freeze the village’s part of council tax for the third year running.

Members voted 7-4 in favour at Monday night’s meeting to maintain the council’s budget at £69,366. There were two abstensions.

The freeze was made possible because of the council’s decision to dip into its reserves to make up a £14,979 shortfall.

The move sparked concerns from some councillors, who feared it may force the council to continue relying on its reserves to top up future budgets.

Coun Bob Bowley called for the decision to be postponed to allow the proposal to be considered further. “[The reserves] are not there to top up the shortfall in the budget,” he said.

“It’s a very unsound financial position to be in. The ramifications have not been fully established and we do need to do a sensitivity analysis.”

Coun Adam Rea said: “It’s very difficult at the moment to broach the subject of putting precepts up, but I believe we may be positioning ourselves going forward with a bigger deficit later on.”

But council chairman Coun John Michael argued the money taken from reserves was excess left over from previous budgets.

“The only other options are to cut the budgets or raise the precept and I don’t think either are acceptable,” he said.

“This is money we have not spent in the past that we have accrued from perhaps not carrying out jobs in the past and it allows us to hold the line on the precept.”

Coun Michael said he believed the council could expect a rise in income over the coming year through sources including rent reviews.

Speaking after the meeting, Coun David Harrison said it was not expected the council would have to take similar action next year.