Telford councillors pass council tax increase - here's by how much
TINA made a return to local politics when councillors in Telford & Wrekin decided There is No Alternative to increasing the borough’s element of the council tax by 4.99 per cent.
TINA will be familiar to those who were taking an interest in party politics in the 1980s and 1990s: the phrase was made famous by the then Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Although councillors ended up passing the council tax increase there were distinctly different levels of support for setting the council’s £230-odd million revenue budget and its inevitable impact on people’s wallets and purses.
The Labour group – solidly in control with 38 of the council’s 54 seats – lined up to positivity support investment into social care for adults and children and more besides.
Presenting the budget Councillor Zona Hannington (Lawley) spoke of “meeting demand with compassion”, and promoting “ambition over austerity.”
The cabinet member for finance, governance and customer services said the council has a “moral duty” to look after adults and children needing care.
The budget includes £150 million of funding for social care.
And Labour members lined up to remind onlookers that Telford is again setting the ‘lowest council tax in the Midlands’.
There was much comparison with goings on across the council borders where the newly Liberal Democrat-run Shropshire has just approved an 8.99 per cent hike in its tax.
Reform councils which are doing the same were also criticised.
Council leader Lee Carter (Arleston & College) attacked the national Conservatives for £195million of cuts imposed on the council while they were in power.
But he welcomed an extra £6 million from his own party in government and praised the council for being able to again set one of the lowest council taxes in the country.
“It is now up to £500 more expensive to live just over the Atcham Bridge,” he said comparing the council he leads with Shropshire.
Even though social care absorbs some 70p in every £1 of the council’s budget, Labour members also spoke of their party ‘values’ and “pride” in filling in potholes, giving £250,000 to an appeal to build a new cancer centre in Telford, and work to make bus travel cheaper.
The seven strong official Conservative opposition group first voted to abstain on the budget, but then raised eyebrows among Labour members when they voted alongside them to increase the average borough household (Band B) council tax by £1.20 per week.
Tory group leader Councillor Andrew Eade (Church Aston and Lilleshall) said that after the budget vote went through, the second council tax vote is a “formality.”
Conservative councillors said there were things in the budget they agreed with, like investment in the housing company Nuplace, the Telford Land Deal, and the growth fund.
Councillor Eade “endorsed the necessity” to put more into social care which the council has a legal duty to do anyway.
But he warned that councils are becoming just “commissioning agents”.
The Tory group leader disagreed with spending millions of pounds on a new swimming pool in Dawley, which he controversially claimed was a “vanity project.” Labour members objected to that.
Councillor Eade claimed that Labour could have chosen a lesser increase in council tax because it had received more from the Government.
Neither the Conservatives, the Lib Dems or independent members presented an alternative budget, although Councillor Eade promised to present one before next May’s all out elections.
Leader of the six strong Liberal Democrats, Bill Tomlinson, saw ‘no option’ but to impose an above inflation council tax rise.
He had been ‘hopeful’ that the government would give enough cash to keep the council tax increase below inflation.
But councillor Tomlinson (Shawbirch & Dothill) said that “Father Christmas has partially delivered” and while this was “better the Tories” the council had to go for an above inflation rise.
“We have to provide the care, we have a moral duty,” he said.
He reserved his criticism for various Governments for failing to get to grips with the rising costs of social care, only to be reminded that his party had been in coalition with the Conservatives after the 2010 election.
Thursday’s meeting also passed on the precept demands of the police, the fire service and individual town and parish councils which feed into the number crunching machines that produce the bills that will tumble through letterboxes and into email inboxes in the next few weeks.
The overall increase in council tax across Telford & Wrekin will be more than 4.99 per cent because of the demands from other precepting authorities.
Overall average rises will be 5.13 per cent although that covers a range of increases depending which town or parish council residents live in.
