STRATTON St Margaret residents will pay the highest council tax in the borough for the coming year.

According to figures released by Swindon Council, the average, Band D, household in Stratton parish will pay £1,330.10 in tax for the year from March.

The total is made up of £1,030 to the Swindon borough, £139.35 to Wiltshire Police Authority, £104 to Stratton St Margaret parish and £55.39 to the fire brigade.

Next highest is Wroughton, where Band D households will pay £1,309 this year and Highworth, where they will face a bill for £1,303.

Lightest hit are Inglesham parishioners, who in Band D can expect to pay £1,225. Swindon's non-parished areas will pay £1,259.85.

Across the borough, the lowest tax bill will be Band A householders in Inglesham £816.

The biggest bill is £2,660 for Stratton St Margaret's Band H households.

Swindon Borough set its budget on Thursday, with the full council passing a rate 3.4 per cent rise in its cut of the tax bill.

The rise means Band D taxpayers will be handing the borough an extra £34 a year from March.

That means Band D householders will be paying £1,030.58 to the borough council - up from £996.24 this year.

The increase in council tax and the 1,000 households that have joined the town in the financial year means the borough's takings will grow by £3.25m.

Added to Government funding rising by £973,000 and an average increase in fees and charges of three per cent, the council will have £117m to spend. The biggest item in the budget is £1.25m to go on a new recycling scheme to be rolled out across the town from July.

The council is to spend £100,000 buying another two graffiti clean-up vans and more mobile surveillance cameras.

Extra spending includes £780,000 on care for adults with learning difficulties, £275,000 for older people with disabilities, £730,000 to cover new charges in children's services and £50,000 for a new regime of £1,000-at-a time community grants.

The council will spend £2m on building maintenance and £900,000 on free OAP bus passes.

But there are also cuts - £70,000 from security at the town's two park and rides, another £114,000 from staff restructuring and another £50,000 from the Swindon Music Co-operative.

The cabinet member for resources, Coun Nick Martin (Con, Shaw & Nine Elms), said he was proud of the budget brought in under tough conditions.

"We have listened to people and delivered them from further council tax punishment, " he said.

He said the council had been congratulated on its budget by Government auditors but Labour opposition leader Kevin Small (Western) accused the Conservatives of tax by stealth, raising fees faster than inflation.

Coun Small said the council was storing up problems for the future, rather than coming clean about the borough's real costs.