Stafford councillors under fire over council tax freezes

Residents saw a freeze in the annual tax bill paid to Stafford Borough Council over several years. One year there was a two per cent decrease in council tax.

But a 1.9 per cent council tax rise is on the cards for Stafford borough residents in 2020/21 and the authority is now facing funding challenges as it looks to balance the books in the coming years.

Increases in parking charges and a new £36 annual charge for residents who want their garden waste collected are among the proposals announced in recent months by the borough council to help pull in more pounds.

But the Conservative-led authority’s previous actions came under fire from the Labour opposition group at a full council meeting on January 28.

Labour councillor Ralph Cooke said: “There were a number of years when our council tax went up by less than the rate of inflation – there were six years where we didn’t increase the council tax at all and one year we reduced it by two per cent.

"If you keep doing that year after year you start getting less money coming in in rates.

“If you had kept (council tax rises) to the rate of inflation and below within the level you are permitted by Government for some of those years you would have had £8.814m in 2020/21, 9.081 in 2021/22 and £9.355m in 2022/23.

"Before us in 2020/21 we have £7.686m, £7.950m in 2021/22 and £8.182m in 2022/23.

“We probably needn’t have bothered about putting the prices up year on year or the garden waste scheme and we would have had additional money we could have spent on other things.”

But Councillor Jeremy Pert, cabinet member for community, said the authority had made a number of “service transformations” over recent years to ensure money was being spent more efficiently, such as sharing some services with Cannock Chase Council and handing over the management of leisure and cultural services to an outside trust.

Councillor Mike Smith, cabinet member for resources, said that for every £1 extra paid by a Band D property more than £48,000 would be raised towards providing services in the borough.

He added: “There will be objections to the increases in fees and charges but we have had no alternative proposals.

“The rise of 1.9 per cent is the lowest in Staffordshire this year. We have a balanced budget for next year and a prudent medium term financial plan.”

But Labour councillor Gillian Pardesi responded: “No alternative suggestions have been made? How about this for an alternative – demand more money from central Government.

“It’s the (Conservative) members opposite who are propping up the Government. I am getting sick and tired of being told we have no options.”