Council Tax freeze for 2012-13

At the Full Council meeting of 23rd February 2012, plans to present a zero per cent increase in the Council tax for 2012-13 was agreed. As part of the Budget process the minority Labour administration, with support from other parties, had passed a zero per cent increase. This decision was then confirmed at the most recent meeting of Thanet District Council members.

Councillor Rick Everitt, Cabinet member for Financial Services, said “We recognise that whilst we prioritise local jobs and services, we also need to do all that we can to help hard-pressed families.”

“Our objective was a safe and sustainable budget that delivers the policies and aspirations of the Council as far as is possible within the current funding settlement. I am pleased that these proposals enabled us to present a budget that supports a zero Council Tax increase and I am glad that Full Council has again agreed this freeze for the next financial year. I am sure that residents will welcome the Council Tax freeze for another year, and we are committed to ensuring that we protect the resident of Thanet from the brunt of these cuts imposed by the Conservative led Government.”

NOTE

Since 2010 Thanet District Council has been subject to cuts in grant funding of 5.3% in the financial year 2011-12, and cuts of 16.9% in the financial year 2012-13.

Thanet District Council Draft Budget

By Cllr Rick Everitt - Cabinet Member for Finance. 
  

"No increase in council tax and some lower than originally proposed fees and charges are key aspects of the draft budget to be considered by Thanet District Council’s new Labour cabinet on Thursday night. 
  

If eventually agreed by council a Band D householder will again pay just under £210 for TDC’s services in 2012/13, although the final council tax bill is dependent on other authorities’ decisions, including those of Kent County Council and the isle’s town and parish councils. 

The new TDC administration has also intervened to reverse £50,000 of cuts to events funding and floral grants that had been tabled by the former Conservative administration. 
  

Given that we only came into office on December 8th and the budget proposals had to be finalised well before Christmas, we have necessarily been limited in the changes we could make. 

However, we have been able to reduce an inflation-busting 9 per cent hike to off-street car parking fees to allow time for a genuine consultation on proposals for a new charging scheme and we have cut back Conservative plans for 8.5 per cent and 15 per cent increases to the cost of cremations and burials. 

Tory proposals to increase charges for pest control services to poorer households have also gone and we have reversed cuts in two areas that we believe would have particular impact on visitors coming to Thanet, in recognition of the bearing tourism has on the local economy. 

These changes have been funded from existing government funding. We have made no new increases in fees and charges to cover them or to the council tax and neither are we drawing on reserves. The money was already there in government funding. It simply wasn’t allocated. 

We recognise that many residents are suffering because of the state of the economy and as far as we can we have set out to ensure that the council doesn’t add to their problems. 

Thanet has been severely hit by government cuts. We are one of only 12 local authorities in England - and the only one in Kent - that is receiving top-up funding this year because the scale of the funding reduction is so steep. 

So while we are able to balance the books and do so without any significant cuts in jobs and services this year, we are not pretending that the council is doing everything it would like to do or is always delivering services of the quality and reliability that residents deserve. 

Neither are we giving up on making those improvements in the future. 

After cabinet on Thursday night, the budget proposals will go before overview and scrutiny next Tuesday (January 10th) and then on to council, which has the final say, on Thursday, January 19th. 

The Conservatives have already had ample opportunity to input to the process as they effectively had ownership of the budget until less than a month ago. We have also held meetings with the council’s four Independent members to hear their views. 

It’s a budget that all sides have had an opportunity to shape and therefore one which all should be able to support".

The shrinking Isle

The number of people registered to vote in Thanet is shrinking, with up to a sixth of voters having vanished from the electoral register in some places over the last four years.

The council’s Labour group is calling for an investigation after it emerged that more than 1,400 voters have disappeared in two of the wards its members represent – Margate Central and Cliftonville West.

Research carried out by Dane Valley ward councillor Will Scobie showed that Thanet was the only one of four East Kent districts to suffer an overall fall, with the number registered across the isle down 4.2 per cent.

By contrast, Shepway increased its electorate by nearly 10 per cent over the same period, while Canterbury was up 3.6 per cent and Dover 1.2 per cent.

The number on register in three-member Cliftonville West ward has plunged 16.2 per cent from 5,288 to 4,429 between 2007 and 2011, while two-member Margate Central has dropped 16.7 per cent from 3,516 to 2,942.

Five other Labour-held wards saw falls of more than 5 per cent over the period, with a 7.7 per cent decline in Ramsgate’s Eastcliff ward.

Shadow cabinet member Cllr Rick Everitt said: “These numbers matter, not only because people are losing their right to vote, but because the national political map is currently being redrawn on the basis of them.

“We recognise that some wards have a high turnover of residents, but people move in as well as out and with a rolling register they can join during the year so that’s no excuse.

“Neighbouring Conservative-run councils have managed to increase their electoral roll, so we have to ask why the Thanet Tories have let this drift to such an extent on their watch.

“Registration is supposed to be compulsory and the council has a statutory duty to keep the register up to date, but in some wards we find that house after house is missing from the roll, while in other cases details are out of date or just wrong.” 

Labour suspicion was fuelled when members tried to raise the issue at the council’s electoral matters working party and was told that the group could only discuss polling districts and polling stations.

Cllr Everitt added: “With the government planning to introduce personal, instead of household, registration in 2014, we believe things are likely to get worse. Thanet needs to get a grip on the situation now.”