BROMSGROVE District Council has labelled potentially one of its final ever budgets ‘resilient’, adding the plan protected key frontline services.
Members agreed a 2.99 per cent increase for the authority’s section of the council tax bill. The figure is below inflation and equates to an average increase of just 15p per week for services provided by the district council.
The rise means the council’s part of the average band D council tax will cost £265.18 which is just £5.10-a-week.
Councillors said the budget kept services sustainable, green spaces glowing and infrastructure improving.
Bromsgrove District Council collects the whole bill on behalf of Worcestershire County Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner, Fire and Rescue Service and parish councils.
Due to a delay in the county council’s setting of its precept, an extraordinary meeting of the district council will be held on March 6.
This is to incorporate Worcestershire County Council’s agreed increases to complete the final council tax setting position and enable council tax billing to be generated.
Then the whole bill can be collated and send out to residents.
This will be one of the last Bromsgrove District Council annual budgets as the Local Government Reorganisation is due to get into full swing with the authority scheduled for abolition in the next 12 to 18 months.
The district council’s cabinet member for finance, Coun Simon Nock, said: “This resilient budget will enable us to continue to provide excellent services even at this difficult time for local government, while protecting our residents from massive council tax rises.
“It is a budget in which all political groups have been involved, and it was great to see unanimous support in the Chamber last night.
“By creating a new £2.5million resilience fund, we are also ensuring that Bromsgrove remains on a stable footing, no matter what the national economy throws at us and with Local Government Reorganisation in mind.”
The council said spending was once again in line with its priorities of Economic Development, Housing, Environment and Infrastructure.
It added it had this year it had rolled out new wheeled bins for every home right across the district as well as a new fleet of bin collection lorries.
And it said those achievements were on top of multi-million-pound commitments already made by the district council for major regeneration and wellbeing projects, including Bromsgrove town centre through redevelopment of the former Market Hall site, transforming it into Nailers Yard.
“Our communities have enjoyed events all over the district, in clean, green spaces maintained by our teams.”
Bromsgrove District Council leader, Coun. Karen May said: “Our focus has always been on creating a Better Bromsgrove. Despite the complex landscape of Local Government finance, we have kept our tax increase below current inflation rates.
“We only retain a small proportion of the entire council tax bill which has historically been around 13 per cent and we are making that work harder than ever to protect the frontline services our residents value most.”
