South Staffordshire council tax bills are frozen for third year
District council tax bills in South Staffordshire will be frozen for the third year running, it was confirmed today.
And council chiefs said they had finished drawing up the £2.2 million worth of savings they needed to claw back by 2015 in the wake of Government spending cuts.
South Staffordshire Council will use volunteers for grass cutting and grounds maintenance at Baggeridge Country Park and on its Railway Walk through Wombourne to save a further £14,000 a year.
But there will be no more redundancies unless the Government imposes more cuts.
Around 35 jobs will have been lost through voluntary redundancy between 2011 and 2015.
Councillor Brian Edwards, leader of the Conservative controlled authority, said South Staffordshire had the fourth lowest council tax in the country.
He said all councils had been offered a Government grant worth the equivalent of a one per cent increase in council tax to freeze it again.
Local authorities are allowed to raise the council tax by up to two per cent without holding a referendum but would forfeit the grant if they do.
Councillor Edwards said: "It would be extremely difficult to explain to local council tax payers that the council is prepared to turn down the offer of £69,000 and instead increase their council tax bill by two per cent when it could have remained frozen."
It means the share of the council tax that people pay to the district council will stay at between £63.56 and £190.68 for the year depending on the value of people's homes. Staffordshire County Councilis not increasing its rates either.
Local business - De Rosa Glass Home Improvements, Wombourne
