County heading for 3.9% Council Tax rise

The cabinet committee is recommending a 3.9% increase in council tax for county council services for 2008-2009.

The plan is in line with the council's promise to lower increases over a four year period. In 2006-2007, the increase was 4.7% which then fell to 4.3% in 2007-2008.

The council now wants a 3.9% increase for 2008-2009, followed by a 3.5% increase in 2009-2010.

The recommendation will go to the full county council meeting on Tuesday, February 12 for final approval.

Deputy leader Cllr Tony Reid said: "We made a strong commitment to local residents to continue to reduce council tax rises and so I am very pleased that Cabinet has made this recommendation.

"Central Government has increased our grant by 3% for 2008-2009 which is better than we expected.

"However, we have a history of poor financial settlements compared to some authorities and we still do not receive the average increase for UK counties of over 5%.

"We believe that the Government still does not truly recognise our unique position in terms of the spiralling costs of looking after our growing elderly population.

"We know that any rise in council tax is difficult for some of our residents. However, bearing in mind the tough financial position that we face, I believe we have produced a sound budget that enhances key services and keeps the council tax increase down but it does mean that we will have to deliver a further 6.4m of savings next year."

The cabinet committee has recommended a budget for 2008-2009 that will see an average Band D council tax payer having their bill for county council services increased by just over 11p per day. If the full county council agrees to the proposal on February 12, the total bill for county council services for a Band D council tax payer will be 1,089 for 2008-2009 compared to 1,047 in 2007-2008.

The cabinet has proposed increasing overall spending by 3.4% or 10.4m. Part of this proposed package includes use of additional flexibility to further increase spending on key services including 1m on services for older people, 660,000 on child protection, 400,000 on the Hastings schools federation, 200,000 on gritting roads and 150,000 for the maintenance of pavements in urban areas, 175,000 to help the council's work on the climate change agenda, 100,000 for Age Concern and 50,000 to extend the opening hours at the Council's archives and records office.

The council's capital programme was also agreed by cabinet and will now go to the full council for approval. The proposed 59m building programme for 2008-2009 includes over 28m for children's services, over 18m for transport and environment, 4.2m for adult social care and 2.7m for chief executives, which includes library developments.

Over the next five years, the county council plans to spend almost 400m on capital building projects.