A FOUR per cent rise in council tax is one step closer at Worcestershire County Council - with its leadership endorsing a £327 million budget today.

The Conservative cabinet has agreed to send its 2016/17 spending proposals out for public consultation after calling the inflation-busting increase a "last resort".

The fresh spending plans, as your Worcester News revealed earlier this week, also includes a record £12 million two-year plan to improve Worcestershire's roads and £5 million on further developing Malvern Hills Science Park.

During a cabinet meeting this morning the leadership insisted it had "very little choice" but to suggest a tax hike in order to properly care for the elderly.

Labour group leader Councillor Peter McDonald turned up to object, saying many people would find it hard to stomach, but was urged to draw up his own alternative budget during a tit-for-tat debate.

As we revealed last week the council tax rise would raise around £9 million, with half of that ring-fenced to pump into adult social care, a move prompted by Chancellor George Osborne.

If voted through by the full council in February it would add at least £42 a year to the average band D bill from April, and more than £85 to the largest homes.

Councillor Adrian Hardman, the leader, said: "The area I'm most concerned, about and continue to be concerned about is adult social care.

"If you look at the demographics for the period from 2014 to 2025, we're facing an increase of 70 per cent in people aged over 90, and a 51 per cent increase in the over-75s.

"Without doubt it will lead to considerable financial pressures - because I do anticipate there'll be more people who are very frail and need the council's care."

He said "this is quite a controversial rise for us" but defended the sum, pointing to Worcestershire's bills being "in the bottom quartile" in the country and £160 less than Nottinghamshire per year.

He also urged people not to assume future council tax increases would be anywhere near this proposed rise, saying it would be wrong to "read anything into it".

The other half of the council tax increase will be earmarked for extra spending on the under-pressure children's social care service, with the county having more than 700 looked-after youngsters on its books.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, the deputy leader, said the budget reflected the public's three main priorities of elderly care, children and roads, calling a tax rise a "measure of last resort".

"These decisions are hard and nobody likes doing it," he said.

Councillor McDonald, for Labour, said it would mean "an eight per cent council tax rise in the just three years", adding: "I don't know how you think people can find the money."

Councillor Geraghty said not upping the rates would lead to service cuts to fill the loss of more than £8 million of extra funding, asking him to devise an alternative plan if he felt that way.

Councillor Marcus Hart, the cabinet member for health and well-being, said: "If you ask the average member of the public what Worcestershire County Council does, after saying they don't have a clue, they'd probably say highways and looking after the elderly - these are our core statutory duties."

He added: "This is not an administration which is putting up council tax blindly, there is a clear rationale for what we're doing."

Mr Osborne has allowed top-tier councils looking after adult social care to up the rates by just under four per cent without the need for a public referendum - double the previous threshold.

The county council has calculated its proposed rise to come in at 3.94 per cent.

The budget includes a savings target of £24.6 million, and is based on a forecast of £55 million in direct revenue grant funding from central Government.

There is still a £2 million black hole of savings that may need to be found for 2016/17, but it will depend on how that Revenue Support Grant comes in.

The final grant funding settlements for 2016/17 are expected to be confirmed to councils at some point today or tomorrow.

* See our first story from last week on a four per cent council tax rise HERE.

* See how we reported the £12 million roads investment project, called 'Driving Home', HERE.