Redcar & Cleveland taxpayers say no to 3.5% council tax increase 4

Andrew Allison Grassroots

Encouraged by the victory for council taxpayers in Brighton and Hove, we teamed up with local Liberal Democrats in Redcar to oppose a proposed 3.5% council tax hike. Local people were amazed Redcar & Cleveland Council were turning down a government grant worth around £1.4 million, and instead intend on taking £2 million from ordinary people by raising council tax.

The council leader, George Dunning, clearly doesn’t understand the grant is being offered to cushion the blow for his council for another year so it can find more efficiency savings. In an interview with the BBC he said:

“If we were to take this one-off grant, we’d end up in future years having to cut more jobs and more front-line services.”

While some councils rigorously examine their spending to find areas where they can save money, Cllr Dunning seems to think his council is the model of efficiency.

What he should do is talk to ordinary people, as signatures were flying on to the pages of our petition urging councillors to think again. The event was reported in the local newspaper, the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette, and other local radio stations reported about those North East councils who are proposing council tax increases.

As we reported last week, a total of four North East councils are planning 3.5% rises. Including Redcar and Cleveland, those councils are Middlesbrough, Darlington, and Stockton-on-Tees. If any of them had opted for 3.51% or more, they would have had to defend their decision to residents in a referendum. They are clearly grabbing all they can without have to fully justify it to us who have to pick up the tab.

Councillors in Stockton-on-Tees are meeting this Wednesday to finalise the budget. The full council in Darlington is meeting the following day, Thursday 1st March. Redcar & Cleveland and Middlesbrough are setting their budgets the following week.

It is not too late to send your views to your councillors urging them to accept the government grant and freeze council tax.

Andrew Allison

Andrew is the National Grassroots Coordinator, and helps our activists across the country organise campaigns on local issues.

Follow @andrew_allison

Blarg1987

I can see where the council is comming from, if they take this one of fund then the following year they will have to compensate for not having the revenue again which could lead to larger council tax increases I hope the TPA on the street did point this out when talking to local people as decisions can be easily changed if the full facts are not avilable.

MooG

Sorry, I’m not having that.

Why do you assume that the inexorable rise of council tax has to continue? They should be CUTTING spending and avoiding the ‘need’ for any council tax increases entirely.

The grant is to give councils an extra 12 months to find those savings, NOT to defer a rise.

I’d hope THIS is what the TPA were pointing out on the street, not your big government nonsense.

Blarg1987

And when they have cut as much as humanly possible then what? Yes effencies have to be made, but to say they can always save money and bring taxes down year untill there is no taxes is unrealistic also.