Council plans to increase tax levels in Carnforth by 83.6% have been met with shock by locals.

The town council announced on Friday that the rise would be implemented in accordance to its new budget from April 1, the start of the financial year.

In the wake of the news, one resident has come forward to describe how 'shocked' and 'slightly livid' they were by the changes.

They said: "How can Carnforth Town Council increase the council tax contribution by 83.6%?

"Over Kellet has an increase of 1.9%, Warton has increased by 3% - I am baffled at the huge increase!

"I just got my bill and was shocked at the increase - there is a cost of living crisis at the moment."

The council explained that the decision was ratified on January 17, which was detailed in the January/February edition of the Carnforth Express - available here.

A spokesperson from the town council said: "[Our] budget (£102,000 this year) is tiny by comparison with those of Lancaster City Council (c.£20 million) and Lancashire County Council (c.£1 billion), and while we don’t provide anywhere near the range of services these much bigger authorities provide, we don’t have the scale of financial reserves they possess and can call on should an emergency arise.   

"So, while in percentage terms, the rise for Lancaster City and Lancashire County Council’s may appear smaller than ours, please remember the sizeable difference in the amounts of money they will be seeking from you."

They explained that, unlike district and county councils, parish and town councils 'receive no direct funding from central government'.

"Our deliberations also required that consideration be given to the future refurbishment and maintenance of our two public halls – Carnforth Civic Hall and Crag Bank Village Hall – both of which need their old and inefficient heating systems replaced to reduce costs and carbon footprint, as well as other improvements to safeguard these buildings for generations to come.

"In the consultation exercise  the majority of residents who responded told us that they valued our two public halls.

"For that reason, we have taken the difficult decision to increase our proportion to provide the resources to enable us to replace at least one of the heating systems while maintaining most of our other services."