COUNCIL chiefs last night sought to justify a possible 8.4 per cent increase in council tax this year.

The proposed rise comes despite Darlington Borough Council benefiting from a £7.7m cash windfall following its legal wrangle with Durham County Council and a £900,000 rate refund on the Dolphin Centre.

Council chief executive Barry Keel insisted yesterday that the rise was necessary in order for the authority to spend at recommended government levels.

"Darlington currently has the lowest council tax in the North-East region and it is likely to remain the lowest," he said.

"Eight point four per cent is not a small increase but it's not a big increase. What we are trying to do is get a balance between the services that people require from us and the additional cost."

The suggested rise will go before the authority's cabinet next Tuesday, before a decision is made by the full council on March 10.

If approved, it will mean householders in Band A pay an extra 94p a week and will provide the authority with an extra £1.8m.

Mr Keel said the money would be spent on services for vulnerable people, community wardens, schools, street cleaning and improvements to roads, footpaths and parks.

Paul Wildsmith, the council's director of corporate services, said the windfalls from the arbitration settlement with Durham and the rate refund on the Dolphin Centre were "one-offs" which had been used to pay debts and replenish revenue balances.

But Councillor Tony Richmond, Darlington's Conservative leader, said: "They are going to have great difficulty in justifying a council tax increase of four times the rate of inflation."

Mike Barker, chairman of the town's Lib-Dems, said: "Old age pensioners who get pension increases of two or three per cent are now faced with four times that amount in council tax increases."