A PETITION calling for the resignation of councillors responsible for a 48 per cent tax hike has been signed by 300 people.

Pensioner Molly Hopkins started the petition and has organised a meeting to discuss a motion calling for the resignation of 13 Trowbridge town councillors, who voted for an extra £375,000 to be raised through the tax over the next year.

She said: "I am so angry about this. There has already been a public meeting about this and so many people were against it but they didn't listen. It is a lot of money for pensioners. I want to see the Town Hall restored but I don't want to pay for it. I can't afford to pay for it."

Trowbridge Town Council agreed the one-off rise in the council tax precept to part-fund a £3 million project to refurbish the Town Hall.

The council voted 13-7 in favour of the rise after a public outcry forced it to rethink an original rise of 87 per cent.

Those who voted in favour of the increase were Cllrs Amor, Blakemore, Brice, Bridges, Burnan, Francis, Hedley, Hill, James, Knight, Milroy, Ransom and Stacey. The public meeting will be held at the Civic Hall on April 18 at 7.30pm.

The rise means a bill for the average band D property of £136.07 for the town council part of the tax, a rise of £44.22 a year, or 85p a week.

The town council hopes to take over the Town Hall, which formerly housed the magistrates' court, from Wiltshire County Council for a nominal fee of £1. No funding has yet been secured for the rest of the project, which the council hopes to raise through grants and possibly a loan.

The money raised through the council tax is to go into a civic buildings fund and could be used to refurbish the Civic Hall should the Town Hall project not go ahead.

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