Tax burden increase (From Stroud News and Journal)

Tax burden increase

COUNCIL tax is on the rise. Gloucestershire County Council has just agreed a record rise in taxes and police stand to receive over half again what they asked for last year. Only Stroud District Council and some parishes have managed to keep down its own increases to more modest levels. Sam Bond checks out what we can expect for our money.

TAX payers in the Five Valleys face a record increase in their council tax bill this year.

Last Wednesday Gloucestershire County Council, which takes the lion's share of the council tax, agreed to a 13 per cent rise while police have asked for more than 50 per cent more than last year.

County councillors say the funding is needed for key services and to continue improvements.

The decision came after a blow from central Government, which has introduced a new funding formula which benefits cities and built up urban areas but leaves more rural areas like Gloucestershire short.

The county council has set its precept of £486 million - an increase of just over £58 million.

Cllr Liz Boait, deputy leader and portfolio holder for resources said: "We have had to take some tough decisions.

"We know that a significant increase in council tax will hit people hard and we have tried to minimise the impact by making £4 million in savings.

"But at the same time we want to increase the capacity of our schools to deliver the best possible education and meet the increasing needs of vulnerable children, families and older people.

"This together with the costs of inflation, a direct reduction in government funding of £27.7 million and significant increases in unavoidable costs of around £30 million, means that the council is having to ask local people to shoulder an increased financial burden."

Despite the increase, Gloucestershire tax payers will still be better off than many of their neighbours.

"People might find it hard to believe but Gloucestershire is still a low spending, low tax authority," Cllr Boait told the News & Journal.

For example, other county councils that have already set their budgets include Somerset, which will have a Band D tax rate of £858, Devon which has set a Band D tax rate of £904 and Oxfordshire which has set a Band D tax rate of £870.

Gloucestershire's Band D rate will be £843.81, before the district, police and parish levels are added in.

In the Stroud district this means the total Band D rate will be £1,143.06, plus whatever each town or parish council demands.

County Councillor Peter Clarke, Leader, said: "The increase in council tax will continue the process of remedying the consistent under-funding by previous councils and the Government over many years.

"The county council's service to local people has been judged 'good' by a recent national Government inspection and the impressive progress we have made during the last eighteen months must continue so that we become an 'excellent' council in the service of our residents.

"In order to achieve this ambitious aim, further investment is needed, particularly in services for the most vulnerable.

We are determined to continue to improve services and reduce overheads as we have done during the last eighteen months."

£21.3 million extra to keep up the good work

EDUCATION has been earmarked as a priority area along with transport and social services.

Despite Gloucestershire's schools getting one of the worse government settlements in the country, ranked 131st out of 150 authorities, standards in the classroom are still good according to schools inspectors Ofsted.

In order to ensure teachers can keep up the good work the county council is investing heavily in education, spending an extra £21.3 million this year.

"We need to spend a huge sum of money to bring the funding of our schools in line with neighbouring counties," said Cllr Liz Boait, deputy leader of the council.

"Schools will receive another boost to their budgets as we have promised.

"They will gain £1 million more than the Government figure and this will improve the funding compared with other authorities, despite our poor settlement."

This money will be shared among the county's schools and spent as head teachers and governors see fit.

£25,000 will also be spent on an in-school waste awareness campaign, Get it Sorted, which will encourage children to recycle and reuse waste at home and in the classroom.

The county's libraries will also see improvements over the next year with £85,000 set aside to pay for extended opening hours and £100,000 for new books.

A promise to be one of the best

POLICE in Gloucestershire have increased their share of the bill by 51.6 per cent, which equates to 94 pence a week for a Band D council tax payer.

For this they are promising to make the county constabulary one of best in the country.

The extra money will be spent on a wide range of initiatives. It will help combat the increased threat of gun crime and terrorism, funding an extra armed response vehicle.

It will also pay for a team of 52 extra officers to boost the investigation of serious crimes such as murder and rape.

At the moment officers need to be pulled from other areas in the county for major investigations, affecting day-to-day policing.

Some officers will receive specialist training in intelligence gathering.

The extra cash will also help Gloucestershire police stay at the cutting edge of forensic analysis.

There will be 60 new community support officers with limited powers putting more uniformed staff on the streets to reassure the public and tackle anti-social behaviour. While they have no powers of arrest they will be able to detain offenders until a police officer arrives on the scene.

The cash will also cover the wages of more station-based civilian staff and free up more police officers.

Finally the extra cash will allow the constabulary to invest in new equipment, police cars, communications equipment and police stations.

Chief Constable, Dr Timothy Brain, said: "We have a vision for the future development of the force which we believe will make it the most efficient and effective in the country.

"We firmly believe that the improvements the people of Gloucestershire will see for this money will make it worthwhile." Funding for the Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service, will see no cuts this year unless the firefighters' pay settlement is much higher than expected.

At the moment the council is budgeting for a four per cent pay increase and to bring the pay of full-time and retained fire-fighters onto a level footing.

New equipment including suits to protect firefighters from chemical fires and new boats for river rescues will also be issued.

Care for elderly a priority

SOCIAL Services will also get a major influx of cash this year, with extra money going to services for the elderly, youth and vulnerable adults.

Over £1 million is to be spent combating bed blocking in hospitals by reducing waiting lists for access to care, especially for elderly.

The bulk of the extra £15 million for older people and vulnerable adults will be spent sorting out residential and nursing homes.

Their will also be cash set aside for vital youth work, with £80,000 going on general improvements for the county council's youth services and £90,000 for family support workers in areas of deprivation.

"Services for vulnerable children and families receives a boost to offer family support and other new initiatives," said Cllr Liz Boait, deputy leader of Gloucestershire County Council.

"While older people's services are to receive a very significant increase to address delayed discharge and increase costs of care."

The council has put the increase in funding of initiatives to help the elderly down to the ageing population.

Subsidies to keep buses running

TRANSPORT is one of the county council's priorities and extra money has been ploughed into improving roads and bus services.

"Our Government funding for the highways has been drastically cut so we are responding to that by putting £1 million towards improving roads, pavements and footpaths," said Cllr Liz Boait.

"We are also investing in road safety and traffic calming measures including speed limits in villages and outside schools."

The council has put aside £56,000 for such measures this year.

As well as working on the road network the council is looking to encourage more people to use public transport by increasing its investment in subsidised bus routes.

Stagecoach had planned to axe unprofitable, underused services, the bulk of which cover rural areas.

"Not only Stagecoach but other local bus companies are suffering difficult times," said Cllr Boait.

"So we need to increase bus subsidies." She said over £200,000 was to be put into the budget for this and also to pay for dial-a-ride schemes in the county.