Last week force leaders met with local government minister John Healey and police minister Tony McNulty to outline their case for keeping the 12.87 per cent rise in its portion of the council tax - £18.78 over the year for the average band D household.

The authority was told by the government in March - after the council tax bills were issued - it should have kept the increase to the recommended five per cent and accept a maximum budget for 2008 to 2009 of £84million as opposed to its planned expenditure of £91.6million.

But the force is appealing in the hope of keeping its "one off" rise.

Chief executive Eric Wood said: "Overall it was felt to be a very fair hearing and they had a clear understanding of the authority's position.

"The government only announced the capping rules after the game finished. What they did was to hint, not to demand, that they expected council tax bills to be below a certain increase, and that each element of the bill should be significantly below five per cent.

"In Warwickshire, the overall increase was well under the five per cent, but the police proportion was above - for what we believe were very good reasons.

"Nobody said it would be a cut-off, but it was - look at Portsmouth City Council, their increased was 5.04 per cent and they were told they would be capped."

HOW DID IT COME TO THIS?

Seven police authorities - also shires - and one city council in England face having their budgets capped for forcing council tax rises beyond the government's limit.

Mr Wood believes the government's decision to "pull the plug" on a planned force merger meant to improve performance on crime, terrorism and 'major incidents', is why shire authorities are struggling.

He said: "We had prepared a business case and identified areas where there should be improvements. Merging wasn't popular, but it was right. Then the plug was pulled.

"We'd identified the areas where there were problems, which then became risks, of course, because we could be said to know about them. But we were left to solve those problems ourselves."

As a result the force underwent a major reorganisation with investment in "problems areas", which has led to "excellent performance and public satisfaction."

According to Mr Wood the force is different to others facing a cut as it wants to "continue improvements" rather than make them.

He said: "We are saying give us the money so we can continue improvements we have already put in place.

"We are also different in that we have not been specific on what will happen if we are capped, we have not been spreading horror stories.

"What we have said is that if we are capped the chief constable will sit down and carry out a detailed risk analysis and we will move on the basis of that.

"It's not fair to get into idle speculation. I understand why that question is raised, but we are confident we have put a cogent and comprehensive argument and have been listened to."