GRAVESHAM: Budget plans council tax rises and job cuts (From News Shopper)

GRAVESHAM: Budget plans council tax rises and job cuts

8:00am Monday 8th February 2010 in

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COUNCIL tax will be raised by an average of £4.06 and less spent on housing if a council’s proposed budget is approved.

Gravesham Council’s draft budget for the next three years, expected to be approved on March 2, includes measures to make up for around £2m it is due to lose from government cutbacks.

This includes increasing council tax by an average of £4.06 for the next financial year, which would bring the council’s share of a Band D property’s bill to £165.69.

Council leader Councillor Mike Snelling said: “We have kept the council tax rise to an absolute minimum in the face of a government funding settlement which continues to be eroded.”

Leader of the Gravesham Labour group, Councillor John Burden, has criticised the planned increase in council tax.

He said: “The council has £3.6m in reserve at the moment and should be using money from there rather than increasing council tax.

“In the economic cycle we are in the last thing a council should be doing is increasing costs for its residents.”

Conservative Cllr Snelling says the government’s decision to cap council housing rents but take a larger slice of that money for itself will have a negative effect on the borough’s tenants.

He said: “What this means is we will not be able to radically improve council properties as we would have wished.”

Another money saving measure the council says it has been forced to make is to cut 66 staff jobs over the next three years.

Chief executive Glyn Thomson said: “Almost all the jobs would go through natural wastage, although there could be some redundancies, but probably no more than single figures.”

Cllr Burden says cutting this amount of jobs “will inevitably have an effect on frontline services” and the council should tell residents which positions will be lost. Cllr Snelling said: “We remain determined to preserve frontline services to the public while achieving a balanced budget.”

Councillors will decide whether to approve the budget at a meeting on March 2.