MALVERN Hills Conservators will be raising its part of the council bill by 5.4 per cent this year.

The decision, which will see the charity’s demand rise from £375,880 to £396,170 for the coming financial year, was approved by 11 votes to seven, with one abstention, at a meeting of the full board last week.

Based on the 2011/12 household numbers the charge for the average band D property would be £27.72, a rise of 79p since the last increase in 2009/10.

The board’s vice-chairman, Tym Musgrove, said: “Our financial consultant has advised us that this level of increase is needed in order to build up our reserves in accordance with the Charity Commission’s guidelines. We would obviously prefer not to make any increase at all but that would just not be a prudent decision in the current circumstances.

“The charge over the last three years has risen on average only 26p per annum for a band D property, just under one per cent per annum, which is well below the rate of inflation over that period.”

Paul Tuthill, whose proposal for a named vote was defeated, voiced concerns about the rise, suggesting three per cent instead.

He said: “I don’t think any other council will be increasing their precept so as an organisation we will stand out. One could argue for three per cent because there is a bit of a catch-up. It would be wrong to go for five per cent when people are finding things a bit difficult.”

Stan Ginn said: “The recommendation is we carry reserves equal to six months’ expenditure. I recommend we build up our reserves to comply with our duties as charitable trustees. A few percentage points increase is hardly going to be noticed.”