From the BBC News website today it appears that the average council tax is set to rise by 4.2% across England and Wales, according to a study commissioned by the BBC. Local authorities will raise bills by £53 to £1,302 for an average band D property in 2007/08, it found. Walsall is therefore delivering an increase lower than this national average – despite poor government grants this year.
Here is a summary of the budget proposals we accepted on Monday evening:
Walsall Council invests millions in services
“Walsall Council is investing millions of pounds as it continues to improve services, but Council Tax will increase by less than £1 per week for the overwhelming majority of borough residents.
Councillors last night (Mon) approved a revenue budget for 2007/2008 which has been increased by £8.9 million.
Eighty-four per cent of Walsall borough residents live in homes covered by the lowest three bands of Council Tax (A-C) and their bill will rise by between 60 pence and 80 pence each week.
More than 16,000 households are set to get a ‘brown bin’ allowing them to recycle organic material from their gardens – boosting the number of households that can take part by 27 per cent to around 76,000.
The authority will continue its £1 million libraries modernisation programme and improve access to council services with a £150,000 mobile ‘customer service’ bus that will tour the borough’s communities.
It is giving £100,000 to Local Neighbourhood Partnerships to help tackle issues in their communities and each area will benefit from at least one clean-up campaign.
New sites will be added to the council’s grounds maintenance programme; older people are getting more community care workers and the council will crack down on commercial fly tipping.
The council will provide extra resources for adults with learning difficulties and take steps to generate energy from household waste. It will establish business forums – where they do not already exist – to help continue the regeneration of district centres.
Leader of the council Tom Ansell said: “This is a budget for better services, balanced with responsible use of our resources.
“I am delighted that our prudent financial management means Walsall Council can invest in improved services wherever possible, whilst fulfilling our commitment to provide real value for money to Walsall people.
“Producing this budget has been tough, as like many councils, we face significant challenges in setting budgets because of the way the Government decides how much financial support to give local authorities.”
Councillors also last night approved a mainstream capital programme of more than £32 million for the coming financial year – including £1.4 million investment in Walsall primary schools and £1.3 million for the borough’s secondary schools.
The approved revenue budget of almost £213 million will result in Council Tax for a Band D property being set at £1,246.87, excluding fire and police precepts – an increase of 3.89 per cent.
It includes significant investment, but there are also proposals for economies to be made, as the council ensures that it balances its books.
These include the restructure of services to release funding to front line services, re-negotiation of current contractual arrangements, business process re-engineering and introduction of electronic management systems within revenue and benefits and a sharpened approach to procurement.”
“As part of our commitment to making West Midlands safer, we offer a free service where firefighters from your local Fire Station will carry out a free home fire safety check.
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