COUNCIL tax payers across Waverley look likely to be spared a 10 per cent increase after successful lobbying of the government by the council.

Three weeks ago, The Herald reported that the government was set to cut its annual grant to Waverley by 0.8 per cent.

Waverley had been expecting an increase in government support of three per cent, so news of the cut, the result of an accounting mistake by government civil servants, meant the council would be left with a settlement shortfall of £195,000 .

Councillors were facing the tough decision of whether to claw back the money in a 10 per cent council tax increase or from a smaller increase coupled with cuts to services.

The council is already committed to budget cuts of £556,000 irrespective of the funding blow.

But Waverley vowed to lobby the government hard for a fairer deal, demanding at least a 2.3 per cent increase in line with the council's measure of inflation. That lobbying looks to have paid off.

After meetings this week with local government minister Nick Raynsford, a key civil servant and shadow local government secretary Theresa May, Waverley leader David Harmer told The Herald: "It looks like we have a satisfactory resolution. We don't know for sure because they're not going to publish the figures until late January or early February, but we're assuming we're going to get it."

But if confirmed, that 2.3 per cent increase is still short of the anticipated three per cent, leaving the council £70,000 short of government cash.

Added to a funding gap in Waverley's pension scheme, Mr Harmer said the council is now facing a shortfall of £190,000.

News of the reprieve comes a week after Mr Harmer told councillors at a budget meeting that he was confident of securing a fairer deal - and if he were to fail, he vowed to embarrass the government by revealing the full extent of civil servants' mistaken accounting.

Waverley was, Mr Harmer said, the second-worst affected out of 155 local councils, who in total, were hit to the tune of £6 million.

The mistake was the result of the government's decision that sixth form colleges will no longer be funded by county councils but by local Learning and Skills Councils.

As a result, it has withdrawn money for councils to provide sixth-form education, but instead of hitting county councils, which provide the money for post-16 education, it has hit borough councils instead.

A 10 per cent rise in the Waverley element of the council tax would have been equivalent to just over £10 for the average £107.64 Band D property.

But coupled with likely increases, also of 10 per cent, in the county council's and police authority's elements of the council tax, and the average council tax payer could have been more than £80 wors