Council tax frozen as Full Council votes for budget cuts in 2013/14

In a surprise vote on 26 February, Full Council voted to freeze council tax.

The Cabinet had proposed an increase in council tax of 1.97% but both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative groups had put forward amendments to freeze council tax and impose budgetary cuts to balance the books. The details of the two amendments differed and, in the voting, the Liberal Democrat proposal was accepted. Although the amendment claimed to put more funding into certain areas, the reality is that funding will be cut across most departments with some staff redundancies inevitably following from this decision.

The final vote on the Budget was won by 52 votes to 49. Unfortunately, I could not be at the meeting, having been taken ill on the evening before and I was still incapacitated on the day of the meeting. If I had been there, I would have voted for the Cabinet proposal to increase council tax in order to preserve services as much as possible in the difficult financial environment that the Council is in.

Details of the amendment can be found on the Council website at Vote to freeze council tax.

February 2013