Tripling of council tax to improve Peterborough buses approved
It means a typical Band D property would pay £36 instead
The Combined Authority (CAPCA) has voted in favour of tripling a portion of council tax bills in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to make bus fares more affordable.
The rise, which will see households in band D properties charged £36 this year – up from £12 last year – was supported by the majority of the CAPCA’s board, meaning it will come into effect in May.
Councillor Mohammed Farooq, leader of Peterborough City Council, said that the “benefits outweigh the burden” of a higher bus precept charged by the CAPCA as he voted in favour of approving it.
“I particularly looked at Peterborough, where the majority of our properties are band B,” Cllr Farooq said.
“The increase for them is £16 or £28 in total; this equates to four, perhaps five, cups of coffee per year.
“Whether they use the bus service or not, at least that facility’s there for them. Just by sacrificing those four or five cups of coffee per year, they’re also enabling some vulnerable people to get on buses that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to travel.”
Cllr Farooq added that he hadn’t “taken this decision lightly”, but decided that “the benefits outweigh the burden which it will bring to the residents” after speaking to a “large number” of them.
Mayor Dr Nik Johnson, a Labour politician and head of the CAPCA, says that the £11m generated from his precept will go towards improving bus stops and shelters across the region and keep struggling services running.
Among them is route 5, connecting Peterborough and Yaxley, while there will also be improvements to services in Eye and Thorney and a review of options for orbital services linking “key destinations” around Peterborough’s city centre.
Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West), who sat on the CAPCA’s board in Cllr Farooq’s place before he was removed from his position as leader of Peterborough City Council in November, asked Dr Johnson to reconsider his proposal to increase his precept earlier this week.
Cllr Fitzgerald said that the CAPCA should look to central government for more money before turning to taxpayers, but his recommendation – made at a CAPCA overview and scrutiny committee meeting – was defeated with eight votes to four.
All voting members of CPCA’s board supported Dr Johnson’s precept increase with the exception of Cllr Anna Bailey.
This means that the CAPCA will charge band A houses £24, band B £28, band C £32, band D £36, band E £44, band F £52 and band G £60 in the upcoming financial year.
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