County council chiefs have blamed central government for a hefty council tax increase announced this week.
A 12.9 per cent increase was reluctantly accepted by the county council's executive board on Monday - which means that the average band D household will pay £87.65 more than it did last year.
Council leader Cathy Bakewell said: "I know this is a lot of money and that the increase will cause distress in some quarters. For the last three months we have worked long and hard to reduce the budget pressures faced by the authority.
"But frankly, we have been shell-shocked by the size of some of the amounts that the government has claimed back from us."
Councillor Bakewell added that a lower council tax would have caused problems in areas such as social services, road maintenance and education.