Tewkesbury residents will benefit from one of the lowest council tax rates in the country after the Borough Council agreed its budget for the coming year.

The £8.66million budget was approved by the full Tewkesbury Borough Council on Tuesday, a budget that included an increase to council tax.

Residents of band D properties will pay the equivalent of an extra £5 per year, seeing their bill rise from £114.36 to £119.36 the equivalent of nearly 10p per week.

Councillor Ron Furolo, lead member for finance and asset management said: "Even with an increase of £5 a year on a band D property, our borough still has one of the lowest council tax rates in the country.

"We have worked really hard over the last few years to keep the borough council's share of the council tax charge as low as possible, while maintaining the services that residents care so much about.

"We've done this despite rising costs and declining government funding."

Council tax pays for a wide arrange of services including waste and recycling collections, flood defence work and planning and development.

Parks and green spaces, food safety inspections, benefits advice, housing and elections also come under the council tax umbrella.

Cllr Furolo praised the way the council had adapted to the decline in central funding but said that the borough won't stop looking for ways to modernise.

"We have become very creative about the way we run our services, and have delivered significant savings as a result," he said.

"But now we are also looking at ways of becoming more commercial in our approach to service delivery and are actively seeking out opportunities to generate much-needed income for the council."