COUNCILLORS have rubber-stamped a 4.49 per cent increase to a county council’s share of tax bills for the next financial year.

Yesterday, Gloucestershire County Council met to finalise its £412.9 million spending priorities for the next 12 months.

Making up the biggest portion of council tax bills, the county council’s increase represents a £52-a-year rise for a Band D household.

A slightly smaller sum was included in the cabinet’s first draft budget but this was increased through an extra £5 million for vulnerable children following a round of public consultation.

Cabinet member for finance, Cllr Ray Theodoulou, said that the included £39 million highways investment would ‘pave the way for the biggest [road] resurfacing project ever’.

“This budget invests in Gloucestershire people’s priorities. As always, our priority is the most vulnerable.

“We have invested over £16 million into protecting children and young people – making sure the resources are available to protect those at risk.

“We have allocated an extra £2.5 million overall to protect vulnerable older people and an extra £220,000 for people with mental health problems.

“At the same time, we’ve invested more into roads – paving the way for the biggest resurfacing project ever, and putting even more money into tackling potholes.

“We’ve done that whilst doing our best to keep tax rises down.”

On top of the proposed budget put before the council, it was agreed to give each councillor an extra £10,000 to spend on highways in their area and to introduce a £50,000 programme – funded through reserves – to distribute sanitary products to vulnerable women in the county.

The county council's budget for the 2018/19 year includes:

  • £133.172 million for adult services, which includes support for older people and vulnerable adults,
  • £102.924 million for children and families, including school funding, children's services and health prevention and wellbeing work,
  • £79.896 million for communities and infrastructure work such as highways, libraries, and the fire and rescue service,
  • a £24.271 million ring-fenced pot for public health,
  • £27.917 million for 'business support'
  • and 44.72 million for technical and corporate work.

Leader of the Labour group, which voted against the budget, Cllr Lesley Williams, welcomed the extra investment in children’s services but said that the budget “mustn’t be played as triumph".

"Children’s services desperately needs sufficient funding to remedy the mistakes of recent years and so I hesitate to applaud the administration for this decision," she said.

The final council tax bill for Stroud district residents will be finalised at the full meeting of Stroud District Council next week.