Council tax bills to rise in Chelmsford
Chelmsford City Council's share of council tax bills is to rise by nearly £5 from April
Chelmsford households will see their council tax bills rise from April as average charges will rise by nearly £5.
It means Chelmsford City Council’s share of a Band D household’s council tax bill will increase from £203.95 to £208.86 following a vote at Full Council on February 22.
But the city council also heard concerns about its medium term plans to fund its capital programme which will see expenditure rise from £14m in 2021 to £43m in 2024.
Councillor John Galley (Cons, Boreham and The Leighs) said: “I am just concerned that £40m has crept up and this year as an example we are taking the capital payment as an internal borrowing.
“If you look at the repayment schedule and its £900k a year but to carry on like that is going to be quite a long time before we get the borrowing down.”
The city council has said it will undertake borrowing to finance commercial property where it meets other strategic requirements such as economic regeneration or supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for example.
It says it plans to borrow internally to buy 20 street properties to address its homeless issue.
Councillor Chris Davidson, the Lib Dem cabinet member responsible for finance, said “The starting point is what cash have we got and what are we going to do with it.
“You can invest it in cash and that gets you a very small return.
“The separate part of the question is should we be buying assets such as the 20 street properties that we bought in the last year. And we have plans another 20 street properties.
“All the expenditure we expect to incur in capital has been factored into what balances are expected to be available.
“Then the question is how do you fund that expenditure.
“Do you take it from the cash that is currently available or do we go out externally to borrow?
“If we went out externally and paid interest at market rates while at the same time holding onto cash that is generating virtually no return that to my mind that would not be a prudent thing to do.”
The council also agreed on changes to parking charges which are set to increase across Chelmsford from April.
Charges on the whole are staying the same for people parking for two hours but will increase by 50p for all other lengths of time.
It means fees for example at High Chelmer and Meadows are set to remain at £3 for two hours but for all other lengths of time fees are set to increase by 50p during the day.