28 February - Tax and charges up again
Last week’s Cabinet meeting effectively set next year’s budget and Council Tax
rate although it does have to be formally nodded through by the Conservative lapdogs
next Wednesday. It will go up by 4·99% which is approximately twice the rate of
inflation and given time the trend will bankrupt every resident on an average
salary. Band D will be £1,885·85 which will almost certainly put Bexley in the
25th worst place in London.
The increase allows for a 3·2% increase in staff pay.
The Director of Finance said the controversial Government grant
changes will see the Council having to self fund 63·7% of its
budget by 2028 compared to 59·5% now. (But Labour continues to claim Bexley is
better off under this Government.)
Council Leader David Leaf said the reduced grant meant that Bexley falls from being the
7th lowest funded London borough per capita to 5th lowest. Less than £400 for
Bexley whilst the London average is £700. That means about £70 million a year less for
Bexley compared to the average. “The Government has let Bexley down.” He
referred back to the Labour Government’s pre-election
pledge to freeze Council Tax. “Another broken promise from this discredited,
deceitful and dishonest Government.”
“Our Public Health Grant, the lowest in London has been cut, in real terms,
again.” The Extended Producer Responsibility, Crisis and Resilience
and Household support grants are all similarly reduced or increased at a rate less
than inflation. “Over [Labour’s] two years there has been a 25% reduction in
cash terms in funds available to those facing cost of living pressures in our borough.”
Despite that, he said, car park season ticket and resident parking permit prices will be frozen (at a rate
six times as high as fifteen years ago).
Hourly parking charges will all be increased by up to 11%, less for longer periods.
The Freedom Pass concessions will continue unchanged. The garden waste
collection charge is going up again, this time to £87 with a £5 discount for
Direct Debit. More than three times the £27 introductory price in 2017. (In 2014
Bexley Council estimated that a zero charge would save it £440,000 a year
because separating food from garden waste attracted higher resale prices. The
whole scheme is almost fraudulent as it was introduced as a money saver not a
cash cow.)
Two Councillors couldn’t resist unsubtly dropping the word reform into their speeches
while offering carefully chosen statistic directed at emphasising how wonderful Bexley Council is compared to
all others. (Four times by Cabinet Member Brian Bishop and Caroline Newton only twice.)
Fortunately Cabinet Member Richard Diment is of a higher calibre and he followed
them with some more useful information. He is on target to simplify recycling
systems as required by Government (I am not sure what that entails). 99.9% of
bins are currently collected on time and the organisation Keep Britain Tidy once
again reported that Bexley has less fly tipping and graffiti than other London Boroughs.
Across the whole of England our roads are “in a better
condition than all but a handful of other authorities and £7·5
million will be spent on them next year. 53 major schemes.” There will be
further repair work on the Harrow Manorway flyover and £190,000 will be spent on
repairing the fish roundabout with the driver’s insurance footing the bill.
Readers local to me will be pleased to know that
the
Lesnes Abbey pond viewing platform is to be rebuilt with metal replacing wood.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella cracked some jokes about the Leader’s
repetitive speeches being recycled and criticised him for not thanking the Government for the increased funding heaped upon Bexley.
(The transition arrangements provide for a small increase in the coming year
only, after which they will be down.)
The Labour Group did not suggest any changes to the budget proposals which were formally referred to Full Council.