COUNTY council chiefs will axe dozens of posts so they can set their lowest council tax rise for 30 years.

But the council will still spend £100,000 on sending teams of officers to help rebuilding tsunami-wrecked Sri Lanka.Up to 40 per pent of jobs in some departments will be cut over the next three years but Hampshire civic leaders have pledged there will be no redundancies.

They say they will reduce staff numbers through natural wastage thanks to the introduction of more efficient computer systems, which need fewer workers.

County councillors were due to increase council tax rates by 3.5 per cent when they met today.

That would mean the bill for an average Band D property would rise from £840.15 to £869.40 from April. The sum will be added to the demands of the police and fire services, as well as district, borough and parish councils.

Police service bills for Hampshire residents this year stand at £114.30 for an average Band D property while the cost of the fire service will be £52.11 from April.

Last year, the total bills faced by council tax payers in the county averaged about £1,148 for a Band D property. The county council rise alone was 4.7 per cent.

County chiefs expect bills to average about £1,189 for Band D homes when the total bills drop through residents' letterboxes in March.

The ruling Conservative group's budget proposals this year include spending £100,000 on sending teams of officers to help rebuild parts of Sri Lanka, which was devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami disaster.

County chiefs are also planning to spend £200,000 on a graduate training programme to find the county's senior managers of the future.

The council employs about 33,000 people and bosses expect a 40 per cent reduction in staff numbers in some departments over three years.

The departments affected are finance, human resources and payroll, procurement and information technology, but county chiefs refused to confirm exactly how many jobs would be lost.

A spokesman confirmed that no frontline services would be affected.

She said: "Many staff will be re-deployed and many of these are clerical jobs, which are often difficult to recruit. Savings are being made through new computer systems, which avoid data duplication, by an agency contract which reduces the cost of temporary staff."