England’s parishes and towns raise council tax surcharge to fund scrapped local services

Cuts to central funding leaves lower tier of local government left to look after libraries, street cleaning and other facilities

Parish and town councils will spend almost 800m in the next financial year after increasing their average council tax surcharge by 8.5%, according to official figures that illustrate how a new tier of local government in England has emerged to carry out basic duties abandoned by cash-strapped local authorities.

From street cleaning to managing public toilets, the 8,866 parish and town councils are the unsung heroes" filling in the gaps opened up by central government funding cuts, the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) said.