A FURIOUS political row has erupted after Tories called for the ruling Liberal Democrats on Waverley Borough Council to honour a "pledge", made in the run-up to this year's local elections, to give a £100 council tax rebate.

The party claims Lib Dems "deliberately deceived" voters in local election material, stating that under a Lib Dem-set budget, every household would receive a £100 rebate in compensation this year for excessive council tax.

In response, Godalming Conservative party member Tom Martin has presented a petition to the council's executive, signed by more than 400 residents disgruntled at the recent hike in council tax.

Mr Martin said: "If you look at the Lib Democrat literature they put out at election time it says in their manifesto and pledge that they are giving everyone a tax rebate this year. They just put in a small point at the bottom about it being if there was a Liberal Democrat government.

"So, with no general election, why would they play so hard on giving £100 back this year?

"The sad thing is that in making such sweeping gestures, there have been some who were swayed by those comments."

As a result, his party has mailed residents a cheque for them to fill out, requesting the council to immediately refund £100. The move has prompted several hundred responses.

However, Lib Dem Leader Chris Slyfield hit back at the allegations as merely being Conservative "sour grapes," at losing control of the council.

He said the £100 rebate issue was entirely a national policy and not one the party could currently implement on a local level.

He said: "Not a single person has come to me and said that they want a rebate of the £100, which is a misreading of our national policy. This is just spin on their part."

Mr Slyfield added that the Conservatives should examine their previous policy on freezing car parking fees, which contributed to the council missing out on £1 million revenue.

But Conservatives refused to accept this, and attacked the Lib Dems' proposed replacement for council tax - a local income tax - based on salaries rather than property prices.

Former leader of the executive, David Harmer, described the concept of local income tax as a "Trojan horse", which would be unworkable due to the complexity of collecting it.

His concern was shared by a number of colleagues, but later rebuffed by Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Simon Cordon.

He believed it would require little alteration to income tax collection arrangements and save the government £500 million nationally by reducing collection costs.

He claimed it would be a far fairer system than council tax, which would benefit those on lower and middle income due to its being linked directly to earnings.

On the £100 rebate wrangle, he added: "When we called in parliament for a £100 rebate, every Conservative MP opposed it. Now, locally, they are pretending otherwise.

"They are acting with two faces and double standards, saying one thing nationally and another locally.

"But worse is their continued support for the hated council tax. It seems they are the only people left who think it's a good idea."