Since 1997, the present government (sorry, this bit may seem to be party-political, but that does not make it untrue) has steadily been offloading duties onto Local Councils that used to be paid for by central funds. The most recent example is liquor licensing. Councils do not, however, get as much extra money from central funds as it costs to run the services. So, Council Tax goes up, while income tax stays the same, but councils get the blame whilst the Chancellor gets the money.

Good trick, that!

Another little-realised fact is that, when the Chancellor raided the pension funds by clawing back their tax credits, the effect on councils' pension funds was disproportionately heavy. Some 25% of the extra Council Tax that we have had to pay since 1997 is going to top up the council's pension fund.

Here's another thing you may not realise.
Revenue Support Grant - that is the money that councils get from central government - is distributed by a "formula", decided by central government. The formula used to ensure that rural councils, which are more expensive to run than urban ones, mainly because of low population densities and high transport costs. By "tweaking" the formula, year by year, money has been diverted away from rural councils towards urban ones. I shall forbear to suggest reasons for this, because I try to keep away from party-political stuff, but no doubt you can draw your own conclusions.

I fear there is little that councillors can do about this, except make you aware of it and meanwhile try to spend your money as efficiently and economically as possible.