Council Tax: the big debate

Published in Weston & Worle News on Thu 12th Jan 2006

Hundreds of pensioners turned out for the Big Council Tax Debate at the Winter Gardens on Friday.

Organised by Weston Senior Citizens' Forum, members quizzed the politicians about North Somerset Council's proposed 4.9 per cent council tax increase for the financial year 2006-7.

Chaired by the pensioners' group's leader Ken Lacey, the panel comprised the council's executive member for finance Mike Bell (Lib Dem), deputy Tory leader Cllr Mike Roe, Cllr Chanel Stevens (Lab), Cllr Carl Francis-pester (Con) and Cllr Tom Leimdorfer (Ind).

Mr Lacey began by saying pensioners and others on low incomes could simply not afford year-on-year increases in council tax.

He said: "When it comes to paying the bills, council tax will be slipping down the list of those that need to be paid.

"If you do go to prison for 28 days, think yourself lucky - you'll save yourself a month of bills."

Cllr Bell thanked the Government for giving the council a £1 million grant but argued inflationary pressures and other costs amounted to more than three times this figure.

He said: "I won't make any apologies for spending your money and my money - that's what the council is there for, providing services to the community.

"But the Government has openly admitted £1.2 million we are entitled to has been given to poorer councils, most notably in the north.

"They give us £1 million with one hand and increase costs with the other.

"The Lib Dem budget proposals will for the first time in a long time see a reduction in the number of staff at the council.

"We will do everything we can to make North Somerset Council a leaner, fitter, more efficient machine."

Cllr Roe believed further savings could be made, particularly when it came to staffing costs.

He said: "We received £600,000 more from Government than the original projection the five per cent ceiling was based on. The council should have applied the additional grant to reduce council tax to 4.2 per cent before looking at other areas."

Cllr Roe said the budget showed only 41 full time equivalent staff out of 7,000 who will not be employed next year, but said in reality there were only six actual redundancies.

He said: "I bet you now that not one person leaves North Somerset Council who doesn't choose to, for the pension or redundancy. The rest will be redeployed."

Cllr Roe also called for the council to stop giving1,000 free parking passes a year to staff, unless having a car was essential to their post.

Cllr Stevens claimed North Somerset did well in terms of Government settlement compared to other local authorities, and believed the council must be run more efficiently.

He said an example of waste due to incompetence was the introduction of a new waste strategy two years ago.

Because the council missed the target to appoint the contract it lost £1.8 million of tax payers' money for no benefit to services, he argued.

The draft budget will now go out to public consultation before being decided by the full council on Tuesday, February 28.