On Thursday evening, the Borough Council voted to increase Council Tax by 5%. Runnymede remains the sixth lowest taxing of the 238 local authorities in the United Kingdom.
As a Conservative, I am instinctively opposed to raising taxes but nonetheless I supported the twelve pence per week increase. Genuinely speaking, we had no other option.
As I have argued before on this blog, the policies of this Labour government towards local government do nothing to help authorities classed as “excellent” by the independent Audit Commission. Runnymede remains a debt-free authority with notable assets yet, like every other Borough Council across the country, faces a challenging financial future, particularly in light of the global economic downturn on the very near horizon.
In terms of tax cuts, Hammersmith and Fulham Council has rightly been praised for cutting their Council Tax by 3% for the second consecutive year - and I say this at great risk of upsetting several of my friend who sit on that Council - but one must realise that their Councillors are working from a base of nearly thirty years of financial incompetence on the part of the previous administration, thus giving them a broad focus for efficiency savings and modernisation schemes.
This is simply not the case in Runnymede, a Borough with a long history of high quality councillors and exemplary officers.
We had a simple choice: increase your Council Tax by £6.03 per year or pull the plug on the ‘discretionary services’ we provide as a Borough such as day care centres and dial-a-ride services for the elderly.
In voting for the increase, I know that the Borough Council have the vast majority of residents on our side.
Cllr John Furey, the Leader of Council, summed things up perfectly:
“An average 12 pence per week rise in our portion of Council Tax for the coming year is remarkable value for money. The overall £2.44 a week equivalent in Runnymede is one of the lowest in Surrey. We continue to address the important issues of our residents, and keeping Council Tax levels low is one of them”.
