COUNCIL tax for homes in Sedgemoor has been set for the 2008 financial year.

COUNCIL tax for homes in Sedgemoor has been set for the 2008 financial year.

Residents living in Band D properties will pay £121.38 for the district authority's part of the council bills.

This is a rise of £5.23 per year, or 10.05p per week for households in Sedgemoor, which includes Cheddar, Axbridge, Wedmore and Shipham.

A spokesman for the council said: "The priorities for Sedgemoor will be housing, regeneration, efficiency and the environment. It is into these functions that the council has directed its limited resources. This will include ongoing work on the regeneration of Burnham and Highbridge and projects in Bridgwater.

"It will also be used on new affordable housing projects and ongoing investment to ensure the district is clean and well maintained."

The council has hit upon hard times after announcing a £1.8million funding gap late last year.

Speaking at the budget setting meeting, council leader Duncan McGinty said: "This has been the most difficult budget we have had to deal with primarily because it is becoming impossibly difficult to make ends meet with the resources available.

"Making ends meet is becoming a euphuism for no matter what the Government throws at us at a local level you are required to smile, cut the services you really want to keep and replace them with something the Government wants.