Sound Budget Maintains Low Vale Council Tax

2.20.59pm GMT Fri 23rd Feb 2007

The Vale of White Horse District Council has agreed its budget for the coming year, setting out an increase of only £4.85 a year for an average Band D household to £102.07. The budget maintains the Vale's record as one of the lowest charging authorities in the country.

The rise in the Vale's Council Tax will be under 5%, representing an actual additional cost to Band D households of just over 40p a month or 9p a week. 79% of the Council Tax collected by the Vale goes to the County Council, 10% to the Police, an average of 3% to Town or Parish Councils and only 8% to the Vale.

Presenting the budget, the Vale Leader, Cllr Jerry Patterson, reminded the Council that the Vale remains the eighth lowest charging District Council out of 238 Districts in England, which compares with Oxfordshire County Council, currently the fifth highest charging County of the 34 English County Councils.

Cllr Patterson said: "This is a sound, robust budget which sets out a clear and responsible programme for the Council for the next four years. There are no surprises but much to be proud of, notably no major cuts to staff or services."

He pointed out that the figure raised through Council Tax in the Vale would have to be much higher were it not for the Council's investments and property, which generate nearly £3½m of income each year.

Key aspects of the budget include:

· The Council's grants budget is maintained at the same level as this year

· The bus pass scheme for pensioners will continue to operate as it currently does, despite a significant extra cost due to its popularity. That means that residents over 60 will still be able to travel into Oxford, Swindon and other neighbouring towns.

· The Vale is introducing a major change to parking within the Vale, significantly reducing the cost of parking up to three hours, which will directly benefit local businesses as people will now be encouraged to stay for longer in Abingdon, Wantage and Faringdon.

Referring to the parking changes, Cllr Patterson said: "The Tories want to give people free one hour parking, encouraging people to 'shop and run', which doesn't benefit local businesses and which would eventually cost taxpayers an extra £½m a year. Our proposal effectively gives people a free third hour's parking, encouraging visitors to stay for longer in our town centres and do more shopping locally. Now which is smarter?"

The Vale's budget for 2007-8 includes plans for significant savings across a range of Council services to ensure that finances remain robust and planned spending is sustainable in years to come.

Cllr Patterson referred to the Vale's outstanding record on delivering affordable housing in the district since the Liberal Democrats came to power in 1995. In that time over 1500 new affordable homes have been built and the Council is committing to supporting the delivery of 400 more over the next four years.

Cllr Patterson reminded the Council that Liberal Democrats remain opposed to Council Tax as a form of local taxation, as it is crude and regressive and it penalises those on the lowest incomes the most. The party remains committed to fair local taxation but, while Council Tax remains the only option for local authorities the Vale will continue to levy as low a charge as is possible.

He commented: "This is a good budget, demonstrating sound finances, solid investments and sensible plans. Anyone who cannot see this may have trouble with numbers. The Vale's opposition clearly has some difficulty with their own proposals since they did not even propose their budget as an alternative. That's not much of a vote of confidence in their work. By contrast, we have a plan for stability and low taxes for years to come.