Members of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council agreed a total council budget of £31,290 for the 2009/10 financial year.

The budget, accepted by five votes in favour to four against with two abstentions, compares with the 2008/9 budget of £32,025.

This year’s precept of £13.31 for each of the parish’s properties in the benchmark Band D bracket remains the same as the previous year’s precept.

Cllr Thorne had voiced his opposition to the agreed expenditure, calling instead for an inflationary 3 per cent increase in the budget.

He also said he felt it was wrong to pay for a lengthman for Stanbury, warning some people could argue the village was being treated as a special case.