COUNCIL tax bills in North Yorkshire are to be frozen next year despite the region’s political leaders saying it will make their challenge to save £37 million even tougher.

North Yorkshire County Council has today agreed to keep bills at their current level for 2011/12 after setting its budget in a move which it says is aimed at helping residents to cope with the harsh economic climate.

The authority is faced with saving £69 million over the next four years, more than half of which needs to be found next year, and council leader John Weighell said: “I believe this is the best budget in the circumstances.

“I don’t like the frontloading [which means most of the savings have to be made over the next two years], I don’t like the reduction in services these cutbacks will have on the county’s economy, but we really have had no choice but to set this budget.”

Councillors’ mileage allowances have also been reduced from 48.5p to 40p for the first 8,500 miles they travel, while proposals to make students aged between 16 and 19 with special educational needs pay for home-to-school transport have been dropped.

The move was intended to save £70,000, but although the consultation on it is still underway, councillors have agreed the money should be found from elsewhere in the home-to-school transport budget.

“We have made this decision because students with special educational needs faced a double-whammy of having to pay for transport at the same time as having their educational maintenance allowance withdrawn by the Government,” said Coun John Watson, executive member for schools.

The authority has so far marked out £54 million of savings and has agreed a one-off proposal to use its reserves to balance the books in 2011/12.