Taxpayers in Helston are looking at a rise of more than £100,000 on their combined council tax bill.

This is the amount that Helston Town Council wants to increase its precept by - the amount it requests from Cornwall Council from the overall council tax.

In the current financial year this is set at £363,890, but the council's finance committee has voted to raise that to £468,010.

However, the £104,120 increase is to cover some specific projects the council wants to take on - in particular employing two further grounds maintenance workers, bringing the total to three, with a view to taking full control of the town's upkeep.

It currently employs a private contractor to care for its play areas and parks, such as the King George V playing field and others, but that three-year contract is about to end.

The town has recently taken over two of the main roundabouts - on Falmouth Road and outside Helston Rugby Club - which have been planted up, and the council is in talks with Cornwall Council about taking over the Redruth Road one, with the other town in the town to follow.

It has also just put in a bid to take over the upkeep of grass verges which, if successful, would not only mean cutting could be carried out as and when needed - rather than only when safety was affected, as is the current case - but Cornwall Council would actually pay some money to the town council.

Town clerk Chris Dawson said: "We could be more reactive to things. We want to the grass verges to be aesthetically pleasing and a nice approach to the town from all directions. We would work alongside Helston in Bloom."

He added that Helston had just over 5km of footpaths that they were paid a small amount by Cornwall Council to cut once a year, but they would invariably need cutting more.

"It's things like that we would do ourselves, and cut them as and when they need cutting rather than do it once and react to members of the public telling us they need cutting," he explained.

The other big difference in the budget is that the finance committee wants to see the community grants budget increased from £8,000 to £20,000.

This was originally at the suggestion of councillor Dave Potter, who wanted to give Helston Downsland Trust an annual grant of £10,000 to increase its captial fund. However, while agreeing the increase, finance members did not specify any recipients,

"It might be something they debate next year when it comes to allocating the £20,000," said Mr Dawson.

Councillors may instead decide to keep the £20,000 to allow larger grants, where appropriate, for the town's community groups and organisations that apply twice-yearly, or to help more people.

The committee decided to keep the town twinning budget at £2,500 - following a rise of £1,500 in the current financial year to cover the 50th anniversary celebrations of Helston's twinning with Sasso Marconi in Italy - as there are visits planned from both Sasso and Plougasnou in Brittany, Helston's other twin town, in the next 12 months.

This all still has to be agreed by the full council at its meeting on November 15, but if given the go-ahead, on the current figures it would mean an increase of £29.88 a year - or £2.49 per month - on a Band D property.

That figure will almost certainly change, however, when Cornwall Council and the police decide on their budgets for the 2019/20 tax year. The local authority has also yet to fix the tax base figure, which will take into account new houses built in Helston - thereby spreading the overall cost across more properties, reducing the figure slightly for each individual household.

In the current tax year, Helston has the third lowest Band D payment of all the county's 23 town councils, at £104.41, only behind Porthleven and St Austell.

In other towns of a comparable size, such as Penryn and Redruth, the figure is £124.68 and £147.62 respectively.