East Cambridgeshire District Council to freeze taxes
It's the 11th year in a row taxes have been frozen
A council tax freeze has been agreed by East Cambridgeshire District Council for the 11th year in a row.
This means that people living in a Band D household will continue to pay £142.14 a year towards the authority.
The leader of the district council, Councillor Anna Bailey (Conservative), said she was “really proud” the authority had been able to freeze council tax for another year.
She said the authority also had no external borrowing and had a balanced budget for the next two years.
Officers said “significant savings” are still needed in later years, but Cllr Bailey said planning a balanced budget for two years gave the authority time to address future budget gaps.
The Liberal Democrat opposition group at the district council said they supported the council tax freeze, but said there were other investments they wanted to see.
Councillor Lorna Dupré (Liberal Democrat) said the group’s proposed amendment to the budget would “address a number of priorities” facing the council.
She said the group was calling for the £9million due to be used to fund the “unwanted” Mepal crematorium project to be spent elsewhere.
The group also called for £100,000 to be spent on a new officer post with a remit of helping parish councils and community groups source grant funding.
They also asked for the proposed environment fund to be doubled from £100,000 to £200,000, as they said they believed the administration’s proposal was “insufficient”.
The Liberal Democrats also called for the district council to pursue gaining civil parking enforcement powers, and proposed that £600,000 of developer contributions should be used towards this.
Cllr Dupré said the district council was one of three authorities in the country not looking to gain the powers to tackle illegal parking.
Councillor Mark Inskip (Liberal Democrat) said problem parking was an issue raised with him by people in the area “time and time again”.
He said: “It is a real concern for residents and it has been a concern raised consistently for the past three, four years and civil parking enforcement is the answer.”
Councillor Charlotte Cane, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said people were “fed up waiting for action” about unsafe parking, and said police do not have the time to address this issue.
Councillor Bill Hunt (Conservative) said he did not agree with civil parking enforcement.
He also claimed there was a “time bomb” of future costs to the district council if they looked to gain the powers, as he said other authorities were having to pay some of the costs of upgrading road markings and signs to ensure parking restrictions could be enforced.
Cllr Cane said the group had included those costs in the proposed amendment to the budget.
Councillor Gareth Wilson (Liberal Democrat) added that he believed it would be a good thing to improve the signs and road markings in the district, so that it was also “clear for people who genuinely do want to follow the rules”.
Cllr Bailey said it was “outrageous” to expect the district council to pay for road marking and signs that she said should have been maintained by Cambridgeshire County Council.
She also said car parking enforcement in rural areas did not work, and highlighted the authority’s plans with police to run a trial where volunteer special constables would target problem parking.
The Liberal Democrat amendment failed to get enough support to be adopted into the district council budget.
The main budget proposed by the administration, including the council tax freeze, was approved by a majority of councillors.
While the district council’s share of the council tax bill will not increase, people in the area will still see an overall increase in their council tax bill.
This is because other authorities that receive funding through the tax have agreed to increase their share, including the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, the county council, and the police and fire services.