COUNCIL tax will continue to rise by around ten per cent a year unless the Government gives authorities more cash, finance chiefs warned today.

Lancashire County Council has also launched a campaign for better government funding for the second year running -- hoping this time it will make a difference.

The Government spent most of last year consulting on how it allocated cash to local councils. The move came after northern councils claimed the lion's share of money was been given to councils in the south.

The result was that Lancashire received a 4.63 per cent rise in money from Government for this financial year -- a total allocation of £998.748 million.

But this fell short of what the council believed it needed to maintain vital services, and despite around £20million of cuts, it put up its share of council tax -- roughly three-quarters of the final bill -- by 9.46 per cent.

Even with some borough councils putting up their portion of council tax -- around one sixth of the final bill -- by less than four per cent, tax payers across the county have been left with bills which have gone up by four times the rate of inflation.

And county councillor Tony Martin, in charge of finance at the county council, said: "We'll campaign for a bigger share. While they've given us more money, they haven't taken into account things like the extra one per cent we have to pay on national insurance, the firefighters' dispute and teachers' pay.

"And we face pressures which many other areas don't. We have rural recovery to deal with, while we also have community cohesion and deprivation issues in urban areas.

"We have no choice but to go to the tax payer. The same will happen again unless Government starts funding northern councils better."

The police precept has gone up 18.77 per cent.

Blackburn with Darwen Council received £132.2million, about £13million up on the last settlement. Their portion of council tax -- being a unitary they set the borough and county parts as one -- is 8.9 per cent.

Finance councillor John Milburn said: "It was a difficult settlement for us, but we believe we've done well to make efficiency savings."

But Lib Dem deputy leader David Foster said: "The whole council tax system should be overhauled. There are better ways of funding councils linked to residents' earnings. This means richer people pay more and those less well off don't pay as much.

"The current council tax system leads to a lose-lose situation."

People in Rossendale, branded the worst borough council in the country by the Audit Commission last year, face the highest rises. This is because their borough council said it had to raise its portion of council tax by double-digit figures or else it would have to make cuts after its problems prompted a financial crisis.

Council tax details...