RYEDALE residents are being urged to protest against proposed increases of 10pc in their council tax bills.

Roy Duffy, from Kirkbymoorside, said he was speaking on behalf of a "silent majority" who had not before spoken up publicly about their unhappiness with hefty council tax rises.

He said that, as a form of protest, he was urging like-minded people to abandon paying their council tax bills by direct debit, advocating that they should instead wait to receive a final demand.

But Ryedale District Council, which is responsible for collecting tax on behalf of all the bodies involved, responded by asserting that such a course of action would be like "cutting off your nose to spite your face" as all the relevant authorities would simply lose money which could be spent on their services.

The executive of North Yorkshire County Council agreed on Tuesday to recommend that the authority's council tax precept goes up by 9.75pc.

This means that people living in average Band D properties in Ryedale area are likely to have to pay over £60 extra each year. Meanwhile, members of the policy and resources committee on Ryedale District Council have deferred a decision on a 10pc rise until they meet on Monday, February 18. North Yorkshire Police is also to raise its council tax level and is expecting to do so again next year.

These rises are even bigger than last year's hikes in council tax and almost four times the rate of inflation. In 2001, North Yorkshire County Council increased council tax by 7pc and Ryedale District Council by 7.2pc.

Said Mr Duffy: "We need to express to these people that we are furious about what's going on. I have never had a 10pc pay rise in my life. What are they doing with our money?"

He added that he was far from alone in holding these views and said that it was time that "the silent majority" spoke out.

"There has got to be a more equitable way of resolving the tax issue. To be honest, I am sick of it. It would be as a means of protest to say 'I'm stopping my direct debit payment' and wait until the final demand. My method would be to try and persuade everyone else to do the same thing."

But Sue Redfern, revenues manager at Ryedale District Council, said that the authority had changed its council tax collection date from the end of the month to the start of the month to allow interest to be gained on the money before the date of paying it out.

As a result, if people did not pay on time, all of the relevant bodies which benefited from council tax would lose out on income which could be spent on improving their services. "It would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face," she said.

A spokesman for the district council's financial services team said that there were a number of reasons why officers were recommending that council tax should rise by 10pc. These included problems associated with interest rate falls, increases in the council's pension contributions and rises in insurance premiums. But he stressed that councillors had yet to make a decision and it was possible that they may not agree with officers' recommendations. He added that a number of savings had been made over the year which would go directly into helping the council provide its services.

North Yorkshire County Council leader John Weighell explained his authority's reasons for increasing council tax. He said: "We still have problems with the budget, but we wanted to keep the increase to below the 10pc mark if at all possible. The figures are still subject to the approval of the full council meeting next Wednesday and could change."

According to Coun Weighell, the county council social services department overspent by more than £4m last year on caring for children and the elderly because of Government cuts in 1999.

He said the proposed increase was also due to unforeseen emergencies in the region, such as the Selby rail disaster, floods and the foot and mouth disease outbreak. The county council's executive meeting heard how the rise would enable the authority to achieve all its budget objectives.

North Yorkshire Police also says that its reserves have been wiped out by dealing with the foot and mouth disease crisis, floods and the Selby rail disaster. Problems with officers retiring had also contributed, with more pensioners on the county force's payroll than serving offices.

Updated: 12:56 Thursday, February 14, 2002