Council Savings Heading for the Dustbin

Plans to reduce the level of council tax in the borough by 4% were kicked into touch last week following the decision to abandon Lib Dem plans to cut the council tax level, bring back a number of key services and increase the amount of affordable housing in the borough.

Following Thursday night's full council meeting the Borough's portion of the council tax is set to rise by almost 12% along with increased charges or cuts to a number of council services. Liberal Democrats on the council had put forward an amendment to provide a more positive budget for the borough. However this was voted down.

Amongst the services that would have been saved by the Lib Dems were:

• FREE bulky waste collections
• FREE drain unblocking
• Summer playschemes
• Three years funding for rural skips
• And the halving of further car parking charge increases.

Following Lib Dem pressure the Mayor has relented in his plan to reduce the waste collection to a fortnightly collection of everyday rubbish. However Lib Dems remain unhappy that he failed to take on board their suggestions which would have cancelled out the extra 2% council tax the mayor has added to fund it.

Speaking following the decision Lib Dem Group Leader Michael Headley said:

"The decision not to support our amendment means council taxpayers face an unnecessary increase and services will be needlessly cut. We put our savings to the Mayor and the rest of the council but they chose to ignore them. There were some concession for rural skips and a limited budget for more affordable homes following pressure from us, but far more should have been agreed.

We demanded that the Mayor listen to local people and provide the waste and recycling service they wanted but with a little imagination this needn't have cost tax payers so much. Our amendment would have saved 4% on what the Mayor is proposing for council tax. We also wanted to see services brought back and more money for affordable homes all within this 4% saving. Instead the Mayor has just added another £2 1/2 million to another reserve. We wanted to see this money used to benefit local people rather than just sitting in the bank.

The Mayor and his allies had a real chance to make a difference with this budget. It is very disappointing that they would rather see local people stump up for an extra 4% on their council tax for fewer services. It's high time this council stopped holding local people in contempt, forcing them to pick up the price for their lack of imagination."