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From Accrington Observer

2008 Council Tax - plays it one way
"And it’s all being done for a council tax rise below the rate of inflation", said Councillor Peter Britcliffe.
He was expected to announce that Hyndburn ratepayers face an overall rise of 3.75 per cent, taking into account county council, police and fire service figures.
Hyndburn Council’s own increase was likely to be 4.95 per cent, meaning householders in Band A would pay just 16p a week extra for local services.
Councillor Britcliffe said: "This is all down to our financial strength.We have really turned the finances of the council around and we can afford to improve services even though we have been short-changed to the tune of £750,000 by the Government"

2007 Council Tax - plays it the other way
HARD hats, a gas-guzzling limousine and hanging baskets were all vigorously discussed in Hyndburn Council's budget debate.
The upshot was a 4.8 per cent rise in council tax.
This means a £9.59 a year increase for a Band D property and a £6.40 increase for a Band A home.
But the overall cost to taxpayers rises to 5.75 per cent when the precepts of the county council, police and fire brigade are added, costing the average household an extra £45.
The council's Conservative leader Peter Britcliffe blamed the increase on the Government "short-changing" the borough to the tune of £230,000 but said he had kept the increase below the five per cent "cap".

Council Tax 2004
HYNDBURN Council is set to increase its share of council tax by a whopping 10 per cent.
But when demands from Lancashire County Council, the police and the fire service are taken into account, the rise will equate to an overall jump of 5.8 per cent, fractionally above the Govern-ment's capping limit.
An annual budget of £12.6M will be set next week if the full council agrees to the recommendations of the ruling Cabinet.
Council leader Peter Britcliffe said every effort was being made to reduce the council tax further in time for that meeting on Tuesday.
He said: "We are working to protect services as well as we can but we are still trying to make as many savings as possible. If you look at the figures coming in from other areas, the shortfall from Government and the problems that have beset Hyndburn, I breathe a big sigh of relief that council tax payers will not be unduly punished."
...
HYNDBURN Council has announced its share of the annual council tax rise will be just 3.9 per cent - far less than the whopping 10 per cent it predicted last week.
In a huge U-turn, council leader Peter Britcliffe said savings of around £350,000 had been found over the past few days, reducing the required level of increase by more than six per cent.
And he pledged the council would "never again" get itself into the cash crisis that sparked the high rise prediction.
When demands from Lancashire County Council, the police and the fire service are taken into account, the rise will account to an overall jump of 4.92 per cent from last year, rather than the expected 5.8 per cent.

Council tax 2006
COUNCIL tax is unlikely to rise much more than five per cent when the final bill is announced in March.
Bosses from Hyndburn Council this week gave assurances they would not raise their shares by more than five per cent.
But they will have to wait for the police and fire services to say how much they need before they can set the tax on 2 March.
Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe made the promise about the borough's share of council tax at a public Question Time-style event last Thursday.
A five per cent rise would mean the average home in the borough would pay £43.35 more than last year.
EXCLUSIVE
HYNDBURN householders face an overall rise in their council tax bills of just under five per cent, it was revealed last night.
The council's Tory leader Peter Britcliffe was set to reveal a "budget for safety" with cash going to provide more CCTV cameras and employ six new police community support officers.We have been able to keep the rise below the Government target figure. Our share of the increase will be less than 13p a week. At an average price of just £2.60 per week per house our services remain great value and are less than an annual TV licence or buying a daily newspaper all year.

Council Tax 2005
RESIDENTS are likely to find themselves paying 3.8 per cent more in council tax from next month.
Hyndburn Council's own share of the bill is set to rise by 8.2 per cent, which will be ratified by a meeting of the full council on Wednesday.
The county council increase has been pegged at 3.5 per cent while the Police Authority has imposed a five per cent precept.
Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe told a meeting of the Cabinet: "The total rise proposed is well within the Government's recommended level of five per cent.
"Since most houses in Hyndburn are in Band A, which pays the lowest level of tax, it would mean an increase of only 19p a week in our share of the bill or around £32 per year overall.
"We have to pay extra costs but the Government has only given us £400,000 to meet them.

HYNDBURN Council's ruling Conservative group has managed to make an 11th-hour cut in the level of next year's council tax.
The rise in the council's share of the bill will now be just five per cent instead of the 8.2 per cent recommended by the Cabinet last week.
That equates to just 12p a week extra for householders in the most common Band A group. The overall rise, taking county council, police and fire service levies into account, will be 3.3 per cent, below the national average of four per cent.
In presenting his budget speech at a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, he said three factors had made this year's budget process a particularly challenging one:
Reckless borrowing decisions by previous Labour administrations which had left an ever-increasing burden of debt.