I am happy to provide the information that correspondent George Self asked for (Are we paying tax for black hole? Echo, March 10).

Council tax was introduced as a means of helping to pay for local government services in 1993. It replaced the community charge/poll tax.

Since then the level of rates collected from businesses has been set nationally rather than by local councils. As a result increasingly since 1993 more of the burden of meeting local government costs has fallen on council taxpayers and less on businesses.

Nationally, council tax increased by 72 per cent between 1993 and 2002, but Weymouth and Portland Borough Council's share of the council tax only increased by 26 per cent over that period.

In simple terms the council was putting off the day when services either had to be reduced or the appropriate level of tax raised to support those services.

A one-off adjustment would not have done this - a permanent increase in the council's annual income was needed.

The result was that there was a big increase (53 per cent) in the council's share of the council tax levy in 2003 to bring it up to the level needed to pay for services.

Even after this large percentage increase the council's record of council tax rises has remained marginally below the national increases since 1993.

Mr Self asks why it appears the borough council tax is much higher than district and Borough council taxes in other areas. There are two main reasons.

First, at the time that properties were valued by the government agency in 1991, values in the borough were much lower than elsewhere. The average council tax value of a property in Weymouth and Portland is band B, but typically is band D elsewhere.

The practical effect of this is to raise an equivalent amount of cash overall, the band D charge in W&P has to be about 25 per cent higher.

Secondly the borough council provides services that are often provided by town councils in other areas and which are charged for separately.

Examples include parks, sports grounds and cemeteries. To illustrate the effect of this the range of charges in local towns (Band D) is Bridport £1,422.42, Dorchester £1,450.95, Wimborne £1,439.99, Swanage £1,405.99. In Weymouth it is £1,431.78.

Finally Mr Self asks about pension costs. There are two main parts - continuing to pay for those who have already retired and putting aside enough to meet costs of staff who will retire in the future.

Compared to other local authorities, W&PBC has an unusual profile. Former employees receiving pensions from the pension fund outnumber current employees. Those former employees have paid their agreed contributions over a long period and their entitlements are fixed. Any shortfall has to be met by the council.

For current employees the government is about to change the rules and new calculations of the costs for individual councils will be needed once the new rules are agreed.

However, based on the current rules the council has to put a total of £2.2m into the pension fund each year.

This is part of the total £45.6m spent by the Council each year in providing the wide range of services, such as refuse collection, planning, environmental health, street cleansing, housing benefits and parks.

Readers might like to know that of this total of £45.6m only £5.5m comes from council tax, with charges for matters such as car parking, ground rents and government grant making up the majority of income received.

Peter Gilmour, Information services manager, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.