ROMSEY'S council taxpayers will be asked to pick-up the bill for a £25,514 loan to pay for the Queen's June visit.

And Romsey's mayor has hit back at critics who've slammed the town council for not putting enough cash by after running up a £58,551 bill for Her Majesty's part in the 400th anniversary charter celebrations.

Romsey Town Council only put aside £20,000 for the royal visit and the unexpected policing bill alone came to £30,514.18p. Now the authority has to pay back a £25,514 interest-free loan to the borough council over the next three years.

The council also received a £5,000 grants from Test Valley Borough and Hampshire County Councils. Cllr Cooper is also planning to hand over £5,000 to the town from his annual £10,000 county council budget for community projects. This leaves £18,037 of the total bill outstanding.

Cllr Cooper said: "Paying back the loan to Test Valley will add £1.50 to each Romsey household's council tax bill per year for three years. The current Romsey Town Council tax is £29.82. I am sorry to add £1.50, or 3p a week, to Romsey's council tax, but that's what happens when we have a loan to pay back."

Although this was a five per cent rise in the town's council tax precept, it represented only a tiny part of the overall bill, said the mayor.

"Placed in context, the full Band D council tax in Romsey overall is £1,275.33 per year. Without taking account of other possible upward pressures on next year's council tax, £1.50 represents an increase of five per cent on the town's council tax but only 0.1 per cent on the overall council tax".

"Some people will want to make political capital from the funding issues around the royal visit. That's really rather sad and belittles the fact that June 8 was one of the happiest days in the modern history of our town," said the mayor.

Responding to criticism Mr Cooper said: "Comments by some people that Romsey Town Council should have planned to fund the royal visit in advance are entirely misplaced and would have endangered the Queen's safety.

"Firstly, the organisers, Mike Richardson and Julian Jones were told quite specifically that the maximum cost would be £20,000 and secondly we were instructed not to put an identifiable cost to our budget to cover the royal visit as this would tell every terrorist on the planet what was going to happen. I am certain that that right thinking people have no wish to compromise the safety of her majesty the Queen."

National newspapers homed in on the cost of a new toilet installed at the town hall but the £4,786 spent also covered redecoration work at the Victorian building and this was not mentioned in news reports and it has upset plumber Paul Rogers who carried out the work.

In an apologetic letter to the Queen Mr Cooper said: "The councillors and staff of Romsey Town Council have been very concerned and alarmed at the media treatment relating to your visit to the town on June 8. We are extremely upset that such an enjoyable and successful occasion has been tarnished in this way.

"The unfortunate publicity comes about because the town council sought a grant to cover the security cost of your visit from Test Valley Borough Council. The borough council then asked us to provide a detailed breakdown of the cost to substantiate our need for a grant. This was provided but unfortunately the borough published the detailed breakdown on its website as part of a council agenda. Subsequently, all the details were picked up by a freelance journalist."