GRAYSHOTT council tax payers are likely to have to dig deeper in their pockets next year with the shock news that a proposed hike of up to 12 per cent in the parish precept will send its portion of next year's bills soaring.

The staggering projected increase, almost 11 times the current inflation rate of 1.1 per cent, was contained in the draft budget presented to parish councillors at their meeting on Monday night.

Parish councillors heard that its current precept of £45,000 would have to rise to more than £50,000 during the coming year to take account of a number of changes and to plug a hole in the pension fund for the parish clerk who retires next April.

"I've taken inflation at 3 per cent as I thought it best to play safe," said the chairman of the policy and resources committee Colin Thompson.

"National Insurance is certain to go up by more than 3 per cent and there will be the deletion of a phone allowance as the new clerk will work here rather than from home," Mr Thompson told his colleagues.

The pension fund he said was "down significantly" and Mr Thompson said he had also increased travel expenses because "although he was conscious that people did not claim" there would be training courses for the new clerk to be taken into account, as well as training for councillors.

The dog "poop-scoop" scheme was he reported also under-budgeted and other changes in the law would also to the costs of the council.

Other one-off costs included the overlap salary of the new clerk, which was expected to be taken from the reserves, to allow the new employee to start on January 1, 2005, three months before the current clerk retires, for training purposes.

"We are spending between £3,000 and £3,500 of our reserves and need to recoup that over the next two years," said Mr Thompson, who was acting on the recommendation of the auditor.

"I think I can justify these additional costs," assured Mr Thompson, who told councillors that presently the parish office was used two mornings a week, with the current parish clerk also working from home.

But he said it was prudent to budget for the new clerk working full time in the office.

The final budget will approved at the next meeting of Grayshott Parish Council in January.