Council tax frozen in Wolverhampton for the fourth year
Council tax in Wolverhampton has been frozen for the fourth year running – but cuts of £17 million will start taking effect from next month.
Wolverhampton City Council has approved an austerity budget that will see it cut almost £60m over the next five years.
But Labour leader Councillor Roger Lawrence said the council would accept a government grant worth the equivalent of a one per cent rise in council tax to freeze the rates.
He said the council could have raised a further £300,000 by increasing rates by two per cent, the maximum allowed without giving residents a referendum, but that doing so would have thrown away the Government’s grant.
“It would have also taken over £1m out of the local economy,” he added. “That did not make sense to us so we chose not to.
“But it does not mean we will fall in line with government freezes in future.”
The decision means the authority’s share of council tax for the coming year remains at £877.81 for a Band A property, £1,024.12 for Band B, £1,170.42 for Band C and £1,316.72 for Band D.
Precepts for West Midlands Fire Service, West Midlands Police and transport authority Centro, which are collected with council tax, could go up.
Council tax was first frozen in 2010, 12 months before Chancellor George Osborne made grants available nationwide, by the former Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition that lost power to Labour in December of that year.
The council is still to complete consultation on some of the most controversial cuts of its budget, even though it has already assumed it will make the savings they promise.
Nine of the city’s 17 children’s centres are to close but the council has yet to identify where the axe will fall.
Respite care beds and day services will be moved out of Warstones Resource Centre, despite a 6,500-signature petition, but a consultation still has to take place on whether or not to turn the building into a “community hub” and provide a new home for Warstones Library.
The council is assuming savings of £1.15m over two years.
Other cuts include plans to reduce garden waste rounds during the winter and removing funding for children to learn Urdu, Punjabi and other mother tongue languages at weekends.
Comments for: "Council tax frozen in Wolverhampton for the fourth year"
Alan39
Whilst no-one wants to pay more Council Tax this lack or courage by Councillors will have a devastating affect on services within the City and give the Council a lower base to start from when the Government stops giving out these bribes...
Also how can they afford to increase the pay bill by £7M per annum without having the base to fund it - again who looses out the citizens of the City.
Another spineless decision from the Council who is supposed to be saving Council services, as best they can in these times, but they continue to show a complete lack of courage to do the right thing for us, the people of Wolverhampton.
BOF
Totally agree, spineless wasters of money.
Why iPads for only some people. Those without will still need paper.
Just cut out the carp printing of flyers and posters forcouncil run events and other promotions.
Cut the waste NOT the services.
Paper based meetings are better for all. Cut the IT waste, you could have even chosen cheaper models. Oh no we have to have the latest Afruit product don't we and with the highest specification.
Surely a cheap laptop would suffice? No old hat, out of date we are hip in Wolverhampton. NOT
Special Needs over spending needs to be severely cut back. New facilities to replace old are built that then get replaced thro more spending. CUT the SPENDING on unnecessary builds and LIVE within your means for a few years.
The local people know how to budget. Perhaps the council are irresponsible spenders who need ousting.
We are after all in it together lets make it ours NOT theirs.
Big assumptions with IT contract spending or should I say wasting.
Can they organise a brewery knees up? nah
UTWanderers
Bluebottle
Cut the 50,000 pounds subsidy to CENTO/WMT/NE for town centre buses
There is a saving.
Enough buses go through town centre from east to west/south side without this waste. The market (remnants) is accessible to all people now Mr Bateman.
Cut the waste not vulnerable people's services