Council Tax frozen for fourth year
Graham Ford • Published 17 Dec 2010 09:30
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SCOTTISH Borders Council will freeze council tax for the fourth successive year.
The local authority agreed to the measure to ensure they received a 2.6 per cent funding reduction from the Scottish Government, the alternative to refusing this offer would have seen a reduction in revenue funding by an unpalatable 6.4 per cent.
The agreement was rubberstamped by elected members at the full meeting of Scottish Borders Council which was held in the Council Chambers on Thursday morning.
The financial package was created following negotiations between COSLA and the political group leaders within SBC.
They had liaised with the Scottish Government over the Local Government Financial Settlement 2011/12.
As a member of this group, David Parker, Leader of the Council played an integral part in the negotiation process. The agreed outcomes were then sent to the Council on November 17 with a deadline of December 21 for the local authority to reply.
David Parker told the Peeblesshire News: "The government settlement was in line with what the council expected and there were no great surprises for us.
"This means that the challenges that we have already outlined are still the ones that we face and we are progressing forward with the budget.
"We face a £13.6m gap and to date we have announced proposals and spending changes totalling approximately £11.2m so we have £2.4m still to identify.
"However, I am very confident that we will be able to identify the remaining £2.4m of savings and these are likely to be announced early in the new year."
The ruling administration parties of Independents, Conservatives and Lib-Dems won the support of opposition groups inccluding the Scottish Nationalists.
Following yesterday's meeting, the SNP group released the following statement: "The realistic decision taken by Scottish Borders Council today to support the agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA will deliver another year of council tax freezes for Borders residents.
"At a time of universal economic uncertainty, this is welcome news and makes this the fourth consecutive year of council tax freeze as a result of the Scottish Government concordat with local authorities."
This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 17 Dec 10
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