Plan for 4pc tax hike rejected
Wednesday 14th January 2009, 1:26PM GMT.
Plans for a four per cent rise in council tax in Powys have been rejected – but councillors will have to make savings elsewhere.
They have voted instead for a 2.99 per cent rise.
Members of Powys County Council’s board yesterday went against a recommendation of raising the county council’s share of the tax by 3.99 per cent.
The 2.99 per cent increase will be determined at a full council meeting later this month.
If agreed, it will mean Council Tax for a Band D Property will increase from £828.16 to £853, an increase of £24.84. The 3.99 per cent rise would have meant an increase of £33.04.
Frontline services across Powys are already facing cuts in the next financial year because of an “extremely disappointing” budget settlement.
The council will get a 1.5 per cent increase in Welsh Assembly Government funding – below the average across Wales of 2.9 per cent and below the current rate of inflation of 4. 1 per cent.
Councillor David Jones, of the Montgomeryshire Independent Group, said he refused to agree to the council’s recommendation of a 3.99 per cent increase.
He said: “The people of Powys are relying on us to do what’s right. We are facing an economic downturn and we need to be doing all we can to try and help protect our residents.”
Councillor Russell George, a Conservative, said: “We need to put the residents first and foremost. They are experiencing exceptionally difficult economic conditions.”
However, Councillor Gwilym Vaughan, of the Powys Independent Group, said the council would struggle to cope if it agreed to anything below a 3.99pc rise.
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That’s big of PCC – limiting their council tax increase. The Welsh Assembly would have capped them anyway if it had been much higher, so I’ll withhold my heartfelt thanks to these selfless councillors!
Naturally, they won’t be claiming any increases in their allowances and expenses in the next year or so will they? – Just to show they take the economic hardships of the public they represent very seriously. On the other hand, I won’t hold my breath for any gestures of that nature….
Is there any other council in Wales which is trying to abdicate its responsibility for so many services as Powys is? Reducing street lighting, stopping running Tourist Information Centres, cutting buses. The list goes on and on.
Yes, the settlement from WAG isn’t good. Yes, money ios tight. So cut a few of those useless non-jobs in County Hall maybe! There’s enough of them, as there is in all local authorities these days. The public wouldn’t even know they were gone. But again, I won’t hold my breath.
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Hear hear Jeepers. I must say though that I disappointed in their lack of creativity. Instead of bleating n about how hard it will be to manage, why don;t they simply ask the good pensioners of Powys to put their hands in their pockets to help out again. Cutting services and asking pensioners to pay twice – that’s their usual way, isn’t it?
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Personally, I’m surprised that they haven’t been more creative, rather than sitting around wring their hands. It’s too early for them to talk about the council struggling when they haven’t even got round to asking pensioners to put their hands in their pockets yet and pay twice for their services. C’mon PCC, you must try harder – fleece the old folk before talking about imposing a council tax rise.
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useless jobs ? see this, available from powys.gov.uk underfreedom of informatio act, ask for f-2008-00286 and f-2008-00287.
challenge cup coach £34-£35.5
splash project £ 32-£35
network co-ordinator for funded settings foe 3 year olds £32-£35 !!!!
school improvement officer X2 £47-£53, what does the head do these days.
manager childrens modernisation £51-£55
look and see for yourself where your money goes in Powys.
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Terrible enough Lewis, but when we consider that those London-level salaries are paid to council workers in an area of the UK which has below-average earnings, it really beggars belief. The council say that they cannot attract people unless they offer that level of money, but to be honest, I’d be quite happy to work as a Splash officer for a lot less than that AND commute there from Shropshire. No need for another council to pay a big “golden goodbye” to some Southern council worker just to have them drift into an agreeable gold-plated, guaranteed salary job at PCC the next day. I’m sure that with the level of unemployment in Powys these days, there are plenty of well qualified people who’d give their right arm to get half that salary as long as they had a job. As for school improvement, I agree, what do head teachers do these days, (leave the profession to become higher-paid school improvement officers at PCC, I guess)? And £55K to “modernise children”! What’s that and where does PCC think that the non-modern children are all hiding? No doubt that’s a post that will be filled by a 40+ professional jobsworth who simply knows how to dress in flares and “get hip, get kickin’, get wicked man and groove it with the kids, baby”, (or whatever language modern kids use nowadays). Looks like those pensioners in Powys are going to have to dig deeper into their pockets if they want the street lights to remain on in 2009.
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