Council tax is set to soar by 14.5 per cent in April along with cuts totalling £6 million.

It means many people will be paying £1,000 a year for their local services for the first time.

Typical Band D payers whose last bill was £922 will find themselves paying more than £1,050.

A financial package agreed ) by the ruling Labour group on Brighton and Hove City Council will be put before a meeting of the powerful policy and resources committee on February 19 before going to a budget meeting on March 6.

The big rise and cuts are necessary mainly because of a poor financial settlement by the Government for Brighton and Hove as it switched cash from the South to the North.

But finance councillor and deputy leader Jackie Lythell said: "Four unitary councils will agree council tax increases of more than 14.5 per cent. A further four are considering rises between 15 and 20 per cent.

"West Sussex County Council has announced an increase of 18.5 per cent and East Sussex is hovering round the 20 per cent level.

"Even with a 14.5 per cent increase, it is still likely the council tax in Brighton and Hove will remain the lowest in Sussex."

Despite the gloomy financial news, there will be more money for schools where the budget rises by £7.5 million.

Extra money for children's social services will be £2.8 million while another £6.3 million will go on adult social care.

Coun Lythell said: "In particular, children with serious disabilities will benefit from the extra money."

Most of the council's money goes on education and social care.

The total savings package of £6 million includes £1.3 million on the internal reshaping of council services introduced by chief executive David Panter.

Funding for culture and regeneration rises by 4.4 per cent and environment by two per cent. There will be cuts in funding of 4.2 per cent for city services and 5.6 per cent in corporate services and communications.

Almost all the cuts have been achieved through efficiencies and cutting red tape. All front line services have been protected.

An example of efficiencies is the move to take out separate computer sections from each department and put them all together.

Less money will be spent on councillors because their numbers will be reduced by 78 to 54 after the May elections.

Coun Lythell could not give a cast-iron guarantee that there would be no compulsory redundancies but said there would be few if any.

Savings are also coming on stream through the big shake up in offices agreed last month by the policy committee, including selling off the Royal York buildings.

The city council said provisional figures, excluding the police authority levy, which has not yet been fixed, would lead to band C bills rising from £758 to £867 while band D go up from £853 to £976.

For a a two person Band D household, the increase will be just over £2 per week. Single people get a 25 per cent discount.

Meanwhile, council services in Adur could be cut after council tax increases of nearly 30 per cent were approved.

Taxpayers face an increase of 10.79 per cent in the amount they pay to Adur District Council in the next financial year.

However, the contributions they have to make to West Sussex County Council services will increase by a further 18.5 per cent.

The Tory-led council said its share of the increase would put just 33p per week on the average council tax bill.

Its executive police board had been recommended to approve an increase of 12.19 per cent for the 2003/04 financial year.

The recommendation came after a survey of Adur residents said they would rather see rises of around that level than have their services cut.

The exact amount of extra taxpayers in each band will have to pay will not be known until West Sussex County Council and Sussex Police Authority confirm their levies.

Council leader Neil Parkin said the council had gone out of its way to consult residents who had decided they wanted to see council tax increases rather than service cuts.

He said: "This level of increase is as low as possible and ensures that we can continue to improve our services to the local community.

"As ever, we have had to balance the competing demands of the need to improve services and our desire to keep council tax within reasonable limits.

"Unfortunately, however, the level of increase set by the County Council and Sussex Police will mean Adur Council taxpayers paying more this year."

The recommendations of the executive policy board will be put before a full council meeting on February 18.