West Sussex County Council has approved an £803m budget to run 80 per cent of all local government services across the county. It will mean a council tax rise of 4.9 per cent for 2007/08, with the average Band D tax increasing by 95p a week for services such as schools, social services, libraries, recycling sites, roads, and the fire-and-rescue service. The current Band D figure is £1,001.34. The new rate is an increase of £49.50 for the year – to £1,050.84. Still to be added to this figure will be the amount needed by Sussex Police and individual district or borough councils. Steve Waight, the cabinet member for finance and resources, told the county council meeting that for the fifth year in a row West Sussex had received the minimum grant increase possible. He added that, despite this, the county council had delivered the lowest four-year run of council tax increases since council tax was introduced in 1993. Mr Waight told the meeting: "West Sussex receives £110 per head of population less than the county average. To put that into context, if we were to receive the average county grant, it would equate to approximately £85m extra – just think what we could achieve if we were fairly funded by the government? "That funding shortfall sets us a huge challenge, but one that, yet again, the council has met. Against the punitive grant settlement, the budget proposals strike a fair-and-reasonable balance between the needs of those who rely on our services and the pockets of those who have to pay for them." Mr Waight said a major review of the way services were managed, and improved arrangements for buying essential items, had led to efficiency savings of £15m to protect frontline services. Features of the budget include: l Additional funding of £5.2m for children and young people's services to meet continuing pressure of caring for looked-after children' l £6.4m extra to meet additional costs of landfill, but also to improve recycling and waste handling; l £1.5m to launch a flagship scheme giving concessionary bus fares to West Sussex children from the age of five to 19-year-old further- education students. This is designed to boost public transport and reduce congestion on the roads; l An extra £1m investment to help adults with learning difficulties. Mr Waight also spoke about the county's £135m capital programme. He said: "Again, we have a large programme of investment. Schemes to be funded include the rebuilding of Bognor Regis Community College, the Adur and Lancing age-of-transfer project, and investment in Crawley where we will be building a new library and a fire station. "However, there are many projects that need funding that we simply cannot afford. The government's consistent refusal to give us even a penny extra to support our capital-financing investment, and our determination not to borrow beyond our means, leaves us with school and highway schemes in desperate need of funding, but with no available monies. "Holy Trinity Primary School in Lower Beeding and Albourne Primary School are just two examples of this," he added.