HAMPSHIRE County Council has started its public consultation exercise on next year's budget after a group of Hampshire residents were given the opportunity to contribute to a discussion on next year's council tax levels at a special workshop at Sparstholt College on Saturday.

MORI has been commissioned to find out how much people are prepared to pay to make up the shortfalls in Government grant to maintain services.

They have been presented with a range of budget options and will explore what the options would mean for local services and council tax bills.

The in-depth community workshop included a representative sample of 40 Hampshire council tax payers drawn from each district and recruited from different social backgrounds, ages etc. The event also included presentations from the county treasurer Jon Pittam and the leader of the county council Cllr Ken Thornber.

The county council decided to launch a comprehensive consultation exercise after it was forced to set an inflation-busting council tax rise of 15 per cent this year as a result of changes to the way the Government funds local councils.

The council is set to lose £48 million as a result of the Government's changes - £21 million of funding was lost in this year's budget and the remaining loss of £27 million in grants will happen between now and 2005.

A large proportion of the council's funding for local services comes from central Government.

Hampshire County Council argued strongly in its Hands off Hampshire campaign against the Gov-ernment's view that taxpayers in the 'affluent' South could afford to pay more towards the cost of vital services like education, social services and transport. The campaign highlighted the impact of higher bills on pensioners and other on fixed incomes who could not afford to pay more.

Cllr Thornber, leader of Hampshire County Coun-cil, said: "We resolved to keep next year's council tax rise as low as possible and this is going to mean tough decisions will have to be made to ensure we continue to provide excellent services whilst keeping council tax increases to a reasonable level. We will be asking residents where they think we should be targeting our spending."