4.99% Council Tax rise gets rubber-stamped

BUDGET PLAN FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2018/19 GIVEN GO-AHEAD

Council tax payers on Wearside will see a rise of almost five per cent from April.

A meeting of the Full Council yesterday rubberstamped the authority’s budget plan for the financial year 2018/19, which increases the levy by 4.99% – including a 2% adult social care precept, recommended by the Government, that will raise £1.79 million for more than 4,000 older and vulnerable people who receive care packages.

The Council Tax accounts for approximately 14%, or £90million of the council’s planned spending of £646 million, with the majority of the authority’s funding budget coming from Central Government grants.

Liberal Democrat and Tory groups both tabled amendments with their own alternative plans, which were defeated.

The Conservative proposals would have seen the Council Tax rise limited to just3%, with a revenue budget cut of £1,812,000, including slicing £1.5million from street cleaning by establishing a new company to take responsibilty for the service, and cutting more than £130,000 from members’ allowances.

The Liberal Democrat proposals would have retained the five per cent rise in Council Tax, but seen an overhaul of the council’s spending, including a £250,000 cut to special responsibility allowances, a £36,000 reduction in councillors’ expenses and subsistence payments and cancellation of more than £3million improvement work at Port of Sunderland.

But opposition councillors clashed over the proposed scale of the Lib Dem’s cuts to allowances and expenses.

Lib Dem leader Coun Niall Hodson said a cut was supported by the council’s own research among council tax payers. “Residents have said they would like to see councillors share the burden,” he said.

But Tory Group leader Coun Robert Oliver said it was necessary to reimburse people for their time and effort in order to ensure a cross section of society was involved in politics.

“If you did not have payments, you would probably only get 600 Jacob ReesMoggs in the House of Commons,” he said.

“One is just fine – 600 is probably not.”

And his Conservative colleague Coun Michael Dixon went further, telling Coun Hodson: “There is nobody in this Chamber today other than those who want to work in public service. There are elements of your amendment that suggest people are ‘on the make’ and I completely reject that.”

Cabinet Secretary Coun Mel Speding said continued investment in the port was essential.

He said: “Are you going to turn a profitable port into a non-profitable port and put people out of work?”