SENIOR councillors welcomed an extra £1.9m which will be invested in children’s social care by hiking council tax – but others insisted it still might be too little, too late.

Oxfordshire County Council will get additional money by raising council tax by one per cent more than it had originally expected.

Steve Harrod, cabinet member for children and family services, welcomed the move, saying: “I find you can turn your back on a pothole but you can’t turn your back on a child in need.”

The council expects to charge residents an extra 5.99 per cent for council tax next year in a move that will mean average taxpayers are charged £80.60 more.

A three per cent increase, which had been expected, was always going to be added to council tax bills to pay for adult social care.

But it will also increase by an extra 2.99 per cent after the authority was told in December that it would be allowed to charge more than the expected 1.99 per cent hike.

As part of those increased charges, a typical Band D property will pay an extra £80.60 next year – up from £1.345.59 to £1.426.19 in 2018/19.

Helen Evans, the Labour group’s shadow member of finance, said her party worried that would still not be enough – even though it was ‘good’ to see the extra spending.

She said: “These changes speak directly to the concerns we raised in December, that the number of looked after children continues to rise – 667 at the start of the year and now 702 children.

“We remain concerned that the savings target for children’s services is simply not realistic. Yes, we can raise an extra one per cent council tax this year and next. This fails to address the funding gap we face after seven years of cuts and unprecedented need for children’s services and adult social care.”

At the end of last year the council said it expected its overspend in children’s services to reach £8.4m. But it said it will plough an extra £8.5m into children’s social care, including money raised by the council tax rise.

Liz Brighouse, the leader of the council’s Labour group, feared that work completed by a cross-party scrutiny panel held in mid-December was no longer as relevant because of the Government’s decision to allow the council tax rise.

Ian Hudspeth, the council’s leader, backed Mrs Brighouse’s view that money coming earlier would be helpful for budget-setting.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We have acted immediately to alert all local authorities and have provided revised figures to enable them to finalise their budget.”