Council tax in Oxfordshire will go up by at least 13.4 per cent, councillors have decided.

The increase for Oxfordshire County Council's share of the levy was approved by the council's ruling Conservative and Lib Dem group at budget-setting meeting at County Hall on February 11.

It means owners of an average Band D property will have to pay £870.41 to the county council for 2003/4.

A series of amendments that the opposition Labour group said would result in a smaller 12.8 per cent rise -- and more money for social and health care -- were rejected.

A rise of 13.6 per cent had been widely predicted.

But this week central Government released an extra £412,000 in grants which enabled the increase to be 0.2 per cent less.

Since 1997, the county council's slice of council tax for Band D has risen from £487 to £872, an increase of 79 per cent.

The figures do not take into account demands from district, city and parish councils, and the police authority, which will be added to the final bill.

The county council's portion is about 80 per cent of the total.

Council leader Keith Mitchell said county councils across the South East were having to bring in increases of between 14 and 20 per cent.

Oxfordshire had suffered less than most as it secured a higher-than-average 6.2 per cent increase in Government grant.

He blamed higher costs on extra responsibilities, targets and wage settlements which he said had been imposed by the Government.

He said: "The South East has been battered this year by the Government's financial settlement and the tax rises across the region will show it."

Deputy council leader Lib Dem Margaret Godden said: "The tax rise is high, there's no doubt about that, but I believe we have got the balance right."

But Oxford West Labour councillor John Power called it monstrous.

He said: "We are imposing a council tax increase of almost four times the rate of inflation. It's monstrous, it's highway robbery, and everyone should vote against it."

The Labour group proposed spending an extra £230,000 to increase wages for low-paid council workers.

They also wanted to spend an extra £750,000 on learning disabilities, children's residential care, respite care and youth services. They argued this could be achieved with only a 12.8 per cent tax rise.

But Conservatives and Lib Dems criticised their proposals to switch money from budgets for fire engines, roads and management training, and accused them of "short-term, gesture politics" and "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

Labour councillors were also defeated over their proposals to make yet broader cuts, totalling £1.93m, that would have seen council tax rise by only 12.3 per cent.

Executive member for learning and culture Neil Fawcett warned Labour's plans would lead to higher increases in the long-run.

Labour leader Brian Hodgson said the council's credibility with the electorate would be damaged when this year's tax bills arrived on doormats. He said tax should be cut via efficiency savings and it was wrong to blame the Government.

He called for a referendum in May on the council's spending plans so that people could express opinions on what he said was a "whopping great rise".

He said a recent council tax workshop attended by 30 people, and a MORI poll of 1,000 Oxfordshire residents, had been inadequate to gauge public opinion.

"The public won't put up with this kind of council tax increase for much longer," he said. "In the end, people have to be able to say what they think at the ballot box."

Conservatives and Lib Dem members rejected the referendum idea, saying it could cost £250,000 to implement.

Alan Lester, chairman of the Oxford Covered Market Traders' Association, told councillors the 13.4 per cent increase was "extortion" at a time of low inflation and interest rates and unacceptable when people faced jail if they did not pay.