Yarmouth council tax increases
Householders across Great Yarmouth have been handed a 1.9pc increase in the district slice of their council tax - the lowest for some time, if not ever.
Householders across Great Yarmouth have been handed a 1.9pc increase in the district slice of their council tax - the lowest for some time, if not ever.
The budget was agreed by full council last Thursday with members keen to maintain frontline services and make any savings from administration and changes in the way services are delivered.
Meanwhile up to 85pc of taxpayers missing �2m frozen in Icelandic Heritable Bank which crashed last year will flow back to the council - �631,000 having already been returned with another �600,000 due in July.
It means a band D property will pay �146.48, an increase of �2.73 on last year although when county, police and average parish levies have been added the figure will top around �1491.64.
Resources cabinet member Steve Ames said these were challenging times with the council focussed on putting its own house in order, scrutinising every vacant post as part of a “lean thinking” exercise looking at it from a customer rather than council point of view.
He said: “We have not experienced any increase in Government funding so choices have to be made. There was a three year settlement announced so we knew what challenges we faced next year and the year after.
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“Reserves are where we want them to be, floating around the minimum level. It is not a growth budget, the commitment is to maintain front line services.”
Leader of the Labour group Mick Castle said his party was broadly satisfied with the budget, adding: “We were not going to make political capital out of it because it was a figure we felt Yarmouth people could live with.
“The feeling was it was in the realms of what the public could expect - it was not an increase above inflation or a zero one which would have meant cuts.”
