Council tax in Dudley is set to rise by an average £50 a year – amid warnings of further cutbacks in services.
The five per cent increase – almost double the rate of inflation – has been blamed on massive increases in the cost of looking after the elderly and disabled and a £6 million shortfall in government grants.
The rise means the tax for a Band D property will go from £1,145.13 to about £1,195 and comes on top of last year’s increase of 4.9 per cent.
Dudley Council bosses revealed the rise as part of preliminary budget plans for the next financial year.
It came with a warning from council leader David Caunt, pictured, that savings would have to be made to balance the books. Staffing levels, leisure facilities and Meals on Wheels will be in the frontline for savings but
“As the various inspection reports and awards we have received this year show, this council is committed to providing high-quality services and excellent value for money for local people
“This, however, has been a difficult budget to set. Our services are at the frontline and with limited resources we have had to make some hard decisions about where our priorities lie.
“But we believe we have come up with a budget proposal that is well balanced and linked to priorities expressed by residents in a recent survey.”
The council has already faced fierce criticism over its decision to to close borough libraries in Quarry Bank, Dudley Wood, Amblecote, Wall Heath and Woodside.
Councillor Anne Millward, Dudley Council cabinet member for finance, defended the cuts, saying: “Although the council’s arguments for a fairer share of government funding have been partially successful, our overall grant is still the lowest in the Black Country and £6 million less than the government itself says we need.”
7 Comments
Maybe the council should stop spending money on those that cant be bothered to work instead of penalising those that do by upping tax!
Maybe these Councillors could cut their expenses, that would help the poor people of Dudley paying huge amounts of Council Tax?
All down to overcrowding and mis-management. Meanwhile the cllrs expenses roll in…
I said on this site and others last year the forecast for council tax will reach 4 grand as in Northern Ireland, you still think i am out of my tree.
In ten years your taxes have gone up so high you can’t afford to live except on credit, yet the greedy gits in the council still fill their pockets, one day you will learn:))
Get snouts out the trough party
If some of these councillors want to blame the government..well guys, you voted them in, supported them. You get what you wish for.
Why should the Cradley folk who come under Dudley Council have to pay more council tax for less services. We have no local high school and soon we will have the leisure facilities and parkland taken off us too. Why should we have to pay the same rates and those more fortunate. ie. Stourbridge, Halesowen and Dudley. Maybe the disgusting amount of increase again is due to the fact of the recent massive overspend.
Dudley people more fortunate Daisy I do not think so. Have you seen the decline in Dudley of late.
The money always seems to go to Brierley Hill, and just lately Halesowen.
The thinking seems to be lets build up Merry Hill & Brierley Hill as the centre of Dudley Borough, and let anywhere else just wither and die