Gedling Borough Council leader John Clarke insists a council tax rise of 8p a week is necessary as the authority try to plug a £3.5m short fall.
The council today said they will have to increase council tax by 3% following further cuts in Government support. Having already been hit with a £2 million cut in money to spend on local services, the council must now find a further £3.5 million savings.
The council tax increase, the first since 2013, will result in the amount the Gedling resident pays on average going up between £0.25p and £0.42p per month.
Councillors will meet to decide the budget at Full Council on Wednesday, March 1. For a typical, “Band B” home in Gedling, the increase will be £3.89 per year.
The budget also include plans for investment in the borough including work to reduce flooding in high risk areas such as Arnold Town centre as well as investing in improving some of the borough’s major town centres including Arnold and Carlton. Improvements are planned at several of the council’s leisure facilities, free two hour car parking at all council owned car parks will also continue and there will be more done to make the council think more digitally and commercially when providing services.
Councillor John Clarke, leader of Gedling Borough Council said: “Over a nine year period, we’ve £5.4million less money to spend on Gedling residents. This is a shocking 62% cash reduction making us the 8th worst affected council in the country.
“For the last three years we’ve been able to freeze council tax but following further government cuts we can’t do that this year and meet the needs of the people we serve. Our council tax continues to be well below the national average and an extra £3 to £5 a year per household will help us to improve our local shopping centres, invest in more CCTV, provide better facilities at our local leisure centres and improve the cleanliness of local areas”.
- What are your thoughts on our first council tax rise for three years? Have your say in our comments section below
Don’t blame GBC for this- the blame lies clearly at the Government’s door. Us in the Midlands and North are seeing things cut to the bone while major investment continues in the South. GBC are doing their best; they have to plug the shortfall some how.
It’s not that much extra in the grand scheme of things
Not too much really. We get good stuff for our money in Gedling with the country park and cheap film showings at Arnold Leisure Centre. I agree that the torys are to blame. As long as we don’t see a drop in services I am OK with the small rise
Let’s talk about wastage Arnold lane ! Gedling bye pass how much waisted money been spent on this over the past 20 years !!!!and still no sign apart from some bushes cut down that have grown back !!i wonder what the cost of that was ?
Given all the news about increases I think we’ve gotten off lightly compared to other councils, was expecting and worrying about increases such as 10 or 20 percent, I’m not going to moan or worry about 3%.
I agree with Carl. They wasted in excess of 40m in the Gedling by-pass when all surrounding roads are falling apart.