COUNCIL Tax payers in Ilkley, Burley and Menston face an 11.5 per cent hike in their bills this year. Bradford Council is considering increasing its proportion of the bill by 8.9 per cent - more than three times the rate of inflation.

On top of that, the West Yorkshire Police Authority is expected to put up its precept by 25 per cent for the second year running and West York-shire Fire Authority will consider a 30 per cent increase in its precept at a meeting on Friday.

The overall effect of the anticipated increases will leave residents in the average D council tax band paying £1,037 a year compared with £930.64 in 2002/3.

And the precept Ilkley residents pay is set to increase this year from around £8 per household to £10-a-year. The money will be used to provide more litter bins and for other special projects in the town.

The hike in last year's police precept reflected the cost of the Bradford riots, but this year's increase takes into account the fact that West Yorkshire has about 1,000 fewer officers than smaller-sized areas.

It comes amid increasing demand for more officers on the street in places with rocketing crime rates.

The anticipated increase in the fire precept would mean people paying an average of 14p a week for the service- or £7.30 a year. A fire authority spokesman said changes in pensions had added £2.4 million to the cost of running the service. The governments decision to increase National Insurance contributions had pushed expenditure up and a fire-fighters' pay settlement could cost about £2.5 million.

Bradford Councils political groups are meeting to discuss their own proposals but education will again be top priority with £4 million set aside for it.

The Council has already agreed to earmark £1.3 million in this year's budget for the Capital of Culture bid and councillors are likely to ask for at least some of it to be diverted elsewhere in view of failure to reach the short list.

Parish councillors in Ilkley have already criticised the amount of money spent on the failed Capital of Culture bid.

But Ilkley District Councillor Martin Smith puts the blame for the massive Council Tax increase firmly at the door of central Government.

He said: "It is disappointing. It has got to the level when Bradford has made such strides in trying to make the council run much more as a business.

"The extra services passed on to us mean we can't retain the level we would have hoped. It would be far less if the Government had not passed on so many services without giving us extra money."

He said that the council was spending so much more on complying with recycling and waste management rules from central Government and the European Union, but grants provided did not meet the extra costs.

"It all adds up but they have not given us enough money to do it - it is a lose, lose situation," said Coun Smith.

The Addingham Parish Council chairman said he was not happy at all about the level of the increase.

"It's ridiculous," said parish councillor Gordon Campbell.