councillors have been warned they have got some 'hard' financial choices to make to avoid imposing another inflation busting tax hike on Dartmouth taxpayers.

The town council's finance chairman Francis Hawke said he could not see councillors being able to impose another 20 percent increase in its precept – as it did in January.

In fact, the increase in the town's precept resulted in the town's share of the average council tax bills going up by around 30 per cent – from £48.85 a year to £61.33.

Cllr Hawke told councillors: 'We have got to be more commercially minded.' Adding: 'There are going to be a lot of hard choices to make.'

In January, the town council decided to budget to spend £161,000 in this financial year – compared to £130,000 it spent the year before.

As the town council prepared to launch into a new round of budget calculation, it is still looking at finding the £50,000 a year over three years it is planning to hand over to fund the proposed indoor swimming pool.

Last month the council discovered that it was faced with spending an extra £20,000 on one of its Butterwalk flats after it underwent a fire risk assessment. And the bill could rise higher after the council was told to carry out similar assessment on all the flats and shops in the complex.

The cost of painting the town market walls and repairing roofs and guttering has turned out to be more than twice as much as expected and the council is now considering taking out a £50,000 loan to cover the costs. And that would involve finding more than £10,000 a year over the next five years to pay it back.

Repairing the Boatfloat walls is going to cost more than £8,000 but the council has aspirations which involve dredging the basin, installing pontoons and putting in a sill at the entrance to keep it full of water at all states of the tide.

Cllr Hawke said 'I cannot see us putting the precept up by 20 per cent again.

'We have to start looking to things that make a profit like the market and the shops.'