[milton-chat] Country park and Council Tax

[Mary-Ann Johnson]

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007, Tim Steele wrote:
> Is it just me or is it unfair for SCDC to put our council tax up by the
> maximum 5% and slash services such as the Country Park and the mobile
> library? Why aren't we up in arms about their financial management?

Because they aren't entirely funded by council tax - central government 
part-funds them too, but that part hasn't gone up by enough to cover the 
inflationary rise in costs, so the difference has to be made up by the 
council tax income.

http://www.scambs.gov.uk/admin/documents/retrieve.asp?pk_document=2519

"At the root of the [County] Council's problem was the financial 
settlement it received from Government, which was one of the lowest 
increases of all councils in the country. Government increased total local 
authority funding by 4.9% and shire counties by an average of 3.8%. Yet, 
Cambridgeshire, the fastest growing county in the country, received an 
increase of just 2.9%."

Of course, you oculd say that they should have presented their case to 
Government better, to get more money that way...

Mary-Ann