A council is hiking its council tax precept by 68 per cent, landing households with an extra annual bill of £20.

Opposition councillors have described the rise as ridiculous.

The Conservative-led Chandler’s Ford Parish Council agreed the increase, arguing that it was needed to revitalise long-neglected community facilities handed over to it by Eastleigh Borough Counci.

The budget includes £50,000 to be spent on playgrounds, £125,000 set aside for general reserves and a £35,000 emergency fund.

The playgrounds and Fryern Pavilion and Recreation Ground were transferred to the parish council from Eastleigh Borough Council last September, bringing with them, the council clerk’s report said, significant responsibility for maintenance.

But opposition Liberal Democrat councillors say that a sizeable amount of the money is going into reserves and the council could have got more grant funding.

Parish councils set a precept – an amount they collect from residents to fund running the parish, collected as part of their council tax bill.

It means that the parish’s 11,000 households will be expected to pay a total precept of £451,186, with a Band D property paying £50.27 for 2015/2016 – a rise of £20.35.

The next highest rise known in the borough is £1.61 by Bursledon Parish Council.

Chandler’s Ford Parish Council has eight Conservatives, nine Liberal Democrats and one Labour councillor, but the Tories chair the council and hold virtually all the main roles.

Cllr Alan Broadhurst (Lib Dem) said: “I think it’s unreasonable and totally unjustified. We’re not doing anything really now that we haven’t been doing before.”

Fellow Lib Dem councillor Paul Bicknell said: “It’s ludicrous, ridiculous.”

But council leader Margaret Atkinson said that other councils had seen bills rise after taking on assets, and it was the advice of the council’s finance officer.

She said that facilities taken on were now “beginning to get to the point where they desperately need doing – these are the sort of issues we’re funding.

“Regrettably it’s like buying a house – you don’t find out all of the issues until you have got it.

“Historically there has been under-investment in our parish.”

She added that the council needed to maintain a certain level of reserves that will be depleted by the ongoing £600,000 Fryern Pavilion improvement project, but extra money was being spent on playgrounds, cycle paths and footpaths.