COUNTY Labour chiefs have branded a 3.99 per cent rise in Worcestershire County Council’s share of the Council Tax as an increase ‘straight out of Whitehall’.
Labour leader Councillor Robin Lunn (Redditch North) made the claim after Conservative budget plans were rubber-stamped by full council on Thursday, February 14.
The increase will add 93p per week onto the bills of an average Band D property with 2.99 per cent going to support the authority’s programme and one per cent to help pay for adult social care.
Council leader Coun Simon Geraghty (Con, Worcs Riverside) highlighted the record £14.1million being spent on adult social care for the year ahead and investments for the future of the service.
A further £7.8million will be spent on the authority’s troubled Children’s Services with the aim of obtaining a good rating from Ofsted inspectors.
Proposed cutbacks in highways maintenance have been axed and £24million has been set aside to fund a major overhaul of how the County Council is run with a greater use of technology.
“It will mean rethinking and reforming the organisation, our services and the way we work to enable us to work in the most productive way possible,” said Coun Geraghty.
“Embracing new technology, ensuring our buildings are fit for purpose and making sure our council is ready for the challenge of the 2020s and beyond.”
“It’s vital these changes go forward as if we allow the engine of reform to stall we put at risk the front-line services we all believe in.”
But Coun Lunn rubbished the proposals saying nine years of Conservative austerity had created a situation where by 2020, 60p in every pound of Government funding for local councils would have been cut.
“This budget reminds me of a test cricket team which has just about managed to reach the close of play in difficult circumstances without losing any wickets,” he said.
“However they are following on 300 runs behind with the next day’s fortunes decidedly uncertain and some may say bleak.”
Coun Lunn unveiled a raft of amendments which would have seen the proposed £145,000 cut to the county’s libraries reversed and an additional £80,000 added to make the service more viable.
Cash injections to tackle homelessness and efforts to preserve the county’s Archive and Archaeology Service were also included in Labour’s plans.
“We are not prepared to simply sit here and accept that austerity is the way things have to be,” he said.
Councillors voted to reject Labour’s amendments by 39 votes to 17.
