Council leader pledges tax freeze for district
A DISTRICT council looks set to freeze its council tax for the next financial year.
Cllr James Waters, leader of Forest Heath District Council, which includes the towns of Newmarket and Mildenhall, pledged there would be no increase in the authority’s share of the total council tax bill as the authority prepared to publish its budget for 2012/13.
Speaking on Tuesday, Cllr Waters said the freeze would not mean any cuts in frontline services because the council had been able to save about £1 million through its plans to share services and computer systems with neighbouring St Edmundsbury Borough Council.
“It is a bland and safe budget but we have balanced our books for 2012/13,” he said.
“We are taking on a new role and a new outlook and I would like us to be more entrepreneurial and more business focused. We need to do more for less for our shareholders who are the people who live in Forest Heath.”
Exact spending priorities will be made public over the next few week but Cllr Waters said he was keen to invest in outside business and work with the private sector “to protect jobs” and boost the economy. “If we don’t have money coming in we can’t spend it,” he said.
And he suggested a closer working partnership with Suffolk County Council to speed up developments involving both authorities.
Suffolk county councillors have been recommended to freeze their share of next year’s council tax bills when they agree the council’s 2012/13 budget on Thursday but Newmarket town councillors have agreed a 1.01 per cent rise in their precept although residents will actually see their bill go down because there are more households to bill than last year.
A Band D property will pay £1.67 a week for town council services for 2012/13 – down 1p on the previous year.
Council taxpayers in Cambridgeshire are looking at rises for both county and district services after the county authority announced it was proposing an increase of 2.95 per cent, the same as East Cambridgeshire District Council.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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