COLCHESTER Council is planning to freeze its part of the council tax next year.

Despite suffering another £1.3million - or 15.3 per cent - cut in Government grants the council is not planning to pass on the loss to taxpayers.

Essex County Council will lose £49million after the cuts were announced yesterday in the House of Commons.

This is a cut of about 15 per cent and follows cuts of hundreds of millions of pounds in recent years.

John Spence, cabinet member for finance, said: “We understand the government has to tackle the deficit but that does not detract from our responsibility both to balance the books and to provide the best possible service for the people of Essex.

“Every successive round of cuts makes the challenge harder."

Nationally about £2.6billion is being cut in council funding for 2015/16.

See the full story in tomorrow's Gazette.