Ratepayers in St Helier have been told they must give the parish enough money to carry out its functions.

St Helier is facing a budget deficit of �2m because the last rates were set below the level needed to cover costs.

It has left the parish having to make cutbacks and redundancies.

Clive Barton, who has just been re-elected as procureur - whose job is to make sure rate-payers' money is well-spent - said once the budget had been approved by parishioners, they should give the parish the money to carry it out.

Setting rates

He said: "I would like to see that people really focus on the budget rather than on the rates.

"I don't mind people saying we can't do that, that should be outside our budget.

"But once they have voted the budget then we should automatically get the rate to do what the parishioners want to do."

He also wants more people to have their say on the parish's finances, from setting rates to spending the money.