Bedale Town Council has voted for an average £7 increase in its share of the council tax bill next year.

Councillors approved the budget which will see £27 - a rise of £7 - added to the average band D council tax bill in Bedale.

Members, who were reminded that the rise equated to about 15p a week, agreed to accept the £33,275 budget despite an attempt by Councillor John Weighell to keep down the increase by looking again at some of the planned projects in the coming financial year.

He said he was concerned for those on pensions and fixed incomes who would be "hammered" by additional precepts from the county and district councils and North Yorkshire police authority.

Among spending items facing councillors next year are plans to convert a garage behind Bedale Hall to make public toilets, a new museum and sports changing areas, financial support for a proposed skateboarding park, grass cutting, insurance, maintenance of trees in the town, a contribution to the local joint burial authority, Christmas lights, upkeep of the clock on St Gregory's Church, improvements to the beckside and maintenance of play areas including that on the Southfields estate in South End.

Coun Ellen Dunning, the deputy mayor, said: "'We have not wasted money over the past year. We don't have much room for movement. We have very little control over some items, including insurance and the burial authority."

The Mayor, Councillor Ray Calvert, said: "We have not been budgeting properly over the past three years. We should have been budgeting higher."