South Staffordshire sports facilities to get a £150k boost
More than £150,000 of investment in a leisure centre and a school sport pitch will be made over the next year in South Staffordshire after council chiefs said they had finished drawing up £2.2 million of cuts.
District council bosses also confirmed plans to freeze their share of the council tax for a third year running. Funding of £77,000 will replace equipment at Cheslyn Hay Leisure Centre and there will be a new all-weather pitch at Wolgarston High School in Penkridge worth £75,000.
South Staffordshire Council will also 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.
The council plans to spend up to £30,000 on a new public address system for the council chamber because meetings keep being disturbed by interference from mobile phones.
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. Councils are allowed to raise the council tax by up to two per cent 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."
Staffordshire County Council, whose services make up the bulk of the council tax demand, is not increasing its rates either. Neighbouring Cannock Chase Council will go for a two per cent rise in April.
