Bishopstoke parish taxpayers are facing an average 16 per cent rise in the precept for the village authority next financial year to help pay the running costs of a new youth centre.

The parish council has approved an expenditure budget of £57,910 for the 2005/06 financial year and fixed its parish precept at £49,500 with the difference being funded from their coffers.

This year's expenditure budget was £47,950 with a precept of £42,000.

It means an increase of £2.14p per year for a Band D home in the parish element of council tax bills that will drop on doormats next April.

But the council says Bishopstoke will still retain its position as setting the lowest parish precept in the borough of Eastleigh and one of the lowest per elector for parishes of any size in Hampshire.

This year, Bishopstoke's demand amounted to £13.01 for a Band D home compared to the next lowest in the Eastleigh borough of £36.97 at Bursledon and the highest being £94.75 at Hound.

The parish council says the main extra expense next year will be an agreed partnership funding contribution of £12,000 a year to the running costs of a new youth centre in the parish set to open its doors during 2005/06.

For a number of years the parish has paid £4,000 a year to partnership funding for detached youth work in Bishopstoke by the County Youth Service.

The village authority says it is also evaluating extra community projects for the future - such as work to increase the potential for leisure use in Stoke Park Woods, a Forestry Commission site which covers a quarter of the land in the parish.