Thame Town Council needs a lot more money in the kitty, its deputy mayor Mike Welply has said.

And council tax payers will have to find it. He told the finance committee: "We have run our funds too low.

"In previous years we have kept spending down and used a lot of our reserves to keep the council tax demand down.

"But now we need to build it up again." He said that by 2003 he wanted at least £150,000 in reserve.

Finance committee chairman Paul Gleeson said: "That would be a bare minimum - it is less than three months' expenditure."