The county council cabinet decided on Tuesday to go for a 12% increase - more than £70 on its share of the council tax for a band B home or £95 for a Band D.

Increases from district and parish councils are still to be added on to that figure.

Cumbria County Council blamed the tax rise on "savage" spending cuts by the government.

Councillor Kevan Wilkinson: 'Large bills'

The council said it was determined that front line services - such as education and social services - would not be affected by the cuts.

But road maintenance is likely to be a casualty with a 21% cut in the highways budget.

The council was allocated an extra £13m by the government for 2003, but has been told to spend an extra £26m on services and has had its highways grant cut by £5.5m.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors say they regret having to increase taxes so much.

Money 'ring-fenced'

Councillor Kevan Wilkinson told BBC Look North: "Basically what we have to do is look at the way we deal with complaints about filling pot holes, how we deal with grass verges and maybe street lights.

"I do not want to cut the basic principle of road gritting.

"The government has given us the extra money for education but they told us how we have to spend it... in essence they have ring-fenced that money so it cannot be spent elsewhere.

"The government has given us £13m, but expects us to spend a further £13m on top of that... that gives us a basic rate of council tax preset of 9.8%.

"We have determined today [Tuesday] that we are going to put back £2.75m, which lifts the tax to 11.9%."