Council Tax and next years budget

[Duke Fame]

How about further cost savings by reducing the number of elected representatives from 3 to 2

That is a good idea.

I think the council should aim at a council tax being 3% of average income for the mid band property. Council tax is unfair and a rip off.

[alan@marple]

How about further cost savings by reducing the number of elected representatives from 3 to 2

[Dave]

16 million is only about 3 percent of Stockport's budget, which is about 500 million, as far as I recall. So it looks as if we've got off lightly (so far...)

[moorendman]

Yes that would be interesting , but overall this has to be good news. Shame they didnt work st freezing the tazx before.

[admin]

Certainly puts a good spin on it. So exactly how has the £16M been saved? Can anyone find a web site that tells us that yet?

[moorendman]

I am surprised that no one so far  has shared the news about last nights finance meeting at the town hall. Council Tax is frozen for next year - thats no increase. Shamelessly stolen from the website of Cheadle councillor, Iain Roberts:

Here are some of the headline items:

    * Council tax frozen
    * No libraries closing, no library opening hours reduced
    * More public toilets: the community toilet scheme means an increase from 15 to 50 public toilets across Stockport, plus those in parks and libraries.
    * No increase in car parking charges.  Free evening and Sunday parking preserved.
    * We’ve cut Children’s Services by a little under 8% (compared to 26% in Manchester).  The youth service and careers provision is being reorganised from a universal service to a more targeted one.  We believe this can be achieved without harm to the young people.  There’s no change to Surestart or Children’s Centres.
    * Council charges have been frozen across the board (except for a very few which were running at a loss).  In Manchester, charges have been increased, costing residents more.
    * Adult Services has been cut by under 3% (compared to 21% in Manchester)
    * Overall the Council will lose about 285 Full Time Equivalent staff (compared to 2000 in Manchester).  As far as possible, this is being done by voluntary redundancy and by not filling posts that were already vacant.  We don’t yet know if any compulsory redundancies will be needed.

His web site is excellent and contains lots of information for his constituents. If any of our councillors are reading this post, take a look here :

http://iainroberts.mycouncillor.org.uk/

This is what you should be doing !!