Members unanimously agreed to raise the figure from £59,800 to £67,500 for its 2010/11 budget.

Some of the money brought in will be used to support the group of residents who have recently completed the Pegswood Village Plan, which sets out various actions to develop services and make improvements to the village.

As the authority has taken on more responsibilities and achieved quality parish status, it has also decided to employ a part-time assistant clerk to help out.

Chairman Simon Willcox said: "This precept is part of our efforts to make things better in the village and make what we do and how we spend taxpayers' money as transparent as we possibly can.

"Now that the village plan has been completed, we are looking to help set up a new action group among these residents and make it fully constituted, so it can bid for funding that is not available to us and other public bodies.

"We are taking on more services, with most of these being passed down from the County Council.

"An example of this is us being given the responsibility for maintaining all of the village's six bus shelters this year, which costs £2,000 just to keep them clean.

"Our current clerk Peter Basnett works five to six hours of overtime a week as well, therefore we felt we needed an assistant who would be trained up so that someone could step straight in if Peter decides to retire.

"This would also help us to keep our quality status in four years' time as one of the requirements is that a parish council must have a qualified clerk with specific accreditation."

He added that £7,000 has been set aside for measures identified by local residents such as more seating and flower beds and installing speed indicator signs.

The authority is also planning to move to a larger office big enough to hold meetings, which Mr Willcox says will save £750 to £800 a year as it will not have to rent other rooms.

l A public meeting about the Pegswood Village Plan will be held at Pegswood Miners' Welfare on Monday, January 25 from 7pm.