One of the South East region’s publicly-owned child care centres is set to increase its fees by as much as 6%.

Wattle Range Council operates the Gladys Smith Early Learning Centre in Millicent and it has signalled the higher fees across-the-board for child care in its recently-adopted draft 2022/23 budget.

If implemented, for example, the daily cost of a casual place for a child under two years of age will rise by 4.8% to $130.

According to the draft budget, council is also increasing many other fees for services by around the CPI increase of 5%.