Co-operative Alliance’s first Lewes District Council budget is passed

Council tax is set to increase in Lewes this year as councillors agree their annual budget for 2020/21.

On Monday (February 14), Lewes District Council agreed to increase its share of council tax by £5 a year for a Band D property as part of the authority’s budget for the forthcoming year.

Introducing the budget, Green council leader Zoe Nicholson said it had been drawn up in collaboration between the cross-party alliance and aimed to protect the most vulnerable residents and address climate change.

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Cllr Nicholson said: “First and foremost, this is a budget about delivering what matters to local people within the resources we have available to us.

“That has meant we have had to increase council tax. Nobody here on this side of the table wants to increase council tax, but it is absolutely a necessity because without doing so we would have to be directly cutting front line services.

“We have continued to commit to delivering on the council tax reduction scheme. Even though some of us on this side of the table don’t think it goes far enough, at least we are committed to doing what we said we would do to support those who are most vulnerable.

“This is also a climate action budget. It is not only essential but it is responsible stewardship for us to be investing in addressing and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to protect our community from climate change.

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“We have to do what we can, with what we have with whom we can influence to make these changes.”

To this end, Cllr Nicholson said, the budget would see the council spend an additional £500,000 on climate change measures. 

These measures would include improvements to the council’s housing stock and retraining residents to leave industries “currently damaging the environment”, Cllr Nicholson said.

Cllr Nicholson said the authority also plans to spend £79m on council housing over the next four years – to fund the building of 200 new council houses and keeping the current stock in good condition.

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This would come alongside a £1.2m spend on homelessness support and prevention, Cllr Nicholson said.

While some areas of the budget received support from the opposition Conservative group, others came in for some significant criticism.

This included criticism over the level of council tax increase, which they argued was higher than the previous year’s increase of 1.99 per cent.

Among those to raise this concern was Cllr Joe Miller (Con, Peacehaven West). He said: “You are increasing council tax by the maximum level of 2.67 per cent, which is higher than 1.99 per cent [and] is going to hit the poorest residents in our district most while stuffing your reserves with an extra £600,000 a year. 

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“That money in our view should be kept in the residents of the district’s pockets. Those that are the poorest despite what Cllr Nicholson said.”

While there was some dispute over this figure in the chamber – the budget papers put it as a 2.7 per cent increase – councillors heard the difference between the two came to 82p over 12 months.

For context, an authority can only increase its share of council tax by up to two per cent or £5 (whichever is highest) each year, without holding a local referendum. 

The Conservative group also put through two amendments to the general budget. 

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The first sought for the council to provide £10,000 to join the CLIFF (Coastal Loss Innovative Funding and Finance) project.

Run by Coastal Partnership East and Marsh, the project has been set up to consider ways to incentivise residents to move away from high risk coastal areas (such as cliff tops) or to provide financial protection to those who lose their homes. 

This amendment was accepted by Cllr Nicholson, meaning it became part of the final budget proposals.

After the meeting, Isabelle Linington, Conservative group leader, said: “I am pleased that the council will now be able to participate in the Coastal Loss Innovative Funding and Finance project (undertaken by Coastal Partnership East) which will examine ways to financially support residents whose homes could be at risk from coastal erosion.”

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The second amendment proved to be more contentious however. Tabled at the meeting, it asked the council to provide Wave Leisure with an additional £25,000 to ensure it could continue to run its anti-social behaviour outreach in Newhaven and rural health outreach projects around the district.

Introducing the amendment,  Liz Boorman (Con, Seaford West) said the funding would ensure the projects could become self-financing. 

However, the need for the extra funding was disputed by  James MacCleary (Lib Dem, Newhaven South), who said it had not been requested by Wave Leisure itself. 

Cllr MacCleary said: “We were all a bit baffled by this one, I have to say, because we were previously informed that there was no plan to cut back any of the outreach services that Wave provides.

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“[Wave Leisure] confirmed today that that is still the case and that with the current budget allocation there is no plan to cut any [antisocial behaviour] services in Newhaven or outreach services to the villages. 

“The motion in and of itself is unnecessary. I don’t know if you perhaps have some inaccurate information from somewhere but if the chief executive of Wave tells us there is no need for this extra allocation, then there is no need to put it into the budget.” 

Following further discussion the budget was approved on a majority vote. The remaining Conservative amendment was defeated.