Norfolk campaigners to protest against plans to raise council tax
It's as the local authority vote on their proposed annual budget today
Local campaigners are gathering at Norfolk County Hall this morning- urging decision-makers to ditch large parts of their proposed annual budget.
Norfolk County Council are planning to raise council tax by 5% and make close to £60 million in savings as part of their annual budget- something they'll vote on today.
Jonathan Dunning works for UNISON in Norfolk: “UNISON members will be concerned at the scale of the cuts being made; both those working for the Council and for organisations the Council commissions especially in the care sector.
"Services have been cut to the bone over the years and pay levels reduced in real terms. Recruitment and retention of care workers and social workers is at crisis point and there is little if nothing in the budget to suggest things will improve.
"Local authorities need to work together, with partner organisations including unions, to hold this Government to account and ensure local services are properly funded.”
Mark Harrison, from the campaign against cuts and tax rises at Norfolk County Council said: “The complete disregard for the people of Norfolk in the middle of a heating and eating crisis is unbelievable.
"Tory councillors at the County Council are putting their Party before council tax payers. They should be investing in services and freezing council tax but instead they are making Disabled people of all ages pay whilst they give tax cuts to corporations, free up bankers’ bonuses and give lucrative contracts to their mates and donors.”
What has Norfolk County Council said about all this?
Council leader Andrew Proctor said: “The Government expects county councils to raise Council Tax by 4.99 per cent and bases all its spending assumptions on that. We are having to propose that rise because, without it, we would have to cut services.
"We have no real alternative, without fair funding.
"We cannot keep putting the burden on Council Taxpayers, when we should be receiving fair and sustained funding, including for social care. I have been lobbying the Government on this for several years – it is now time for action.”
Councillor Andrew Jamieson, cabinet member for finance, said: “Despite huge uncertainties and major cost of living and demand pressures, we have managed to bridge the biggest budget gap we have ever faced - £60 million - and propose a budget which meets pressures on key services.
“We are working hard to ensure the council is efficient as possible and are on target to save £17 million from the first phase of our review of how the council operates.
“More than half the money central Government cites as the total award to local authorities comes from an assumed rise in Council Tax by 4.99%. I wish we could have avoided a proposed Council Tax rise of 4.99 per cent but the alternative would have been to make cuts to services.”
Following public consultation, the report to cabinet proposes that Wednesday closing of recycling and household waste centres is not introduced and that savings from the mobile library service are restricted to removing unused stops.