THURROCK Council set a zero-increase council tax when it met on Wednesday (25 February) evening.
But council tax payers in the borough will see a slight increase in their bill as the Police and Crime Commissioner and Essex Police have increased their part by 1.996 per cent. The Essex Fire and Rescue Service also have no increase.
This means those people living in a Band D property will receive a bill of £1,033.21. The majority of homes in Thurrock are Band C where the overall bill will be £1,189.52.
Proposing the measure for Thurrock’s part of the bill – £1,124.64 for Band D and £999.68 for Band C – Council Leader, Cllr John Kent, said his favourite use of the word “increase” in the agenda item was “a zero percent increase”.
Cllr Kent described the zero increase as “a difficult decision, in fact probably the last in a very long line of difficult decisions we’ve had to take in the past few months”, but said: “I believe this budget – this balanced budget – has been the toughest to set ever.
“We will be receiving over £30 million less than in 2010 and over £10 million less than we received last year – and I make no apology for saying, no matter who wins or ends up in government after May the cuts will just keep on coming, year after year.
“Despite this we are putting forward a balanced budget for next year, and we have even found enough spare so we are able to protect Thurrock’s hard-working council tax payers from another increased bill.”
He went on to thank officers and members of the overview and scrutiny committee for their work developing the budget, saying: “The work of overview and scrutiny shows that proposals we’ve put forward have had proper and rigorous scrutiny from democratically elected members and are not issues and ideas that have been sprung on members suddenly.
They been carefully costed and carefully scrutinised. They’ve been in the public domain – in some cases for the best part of a year. And often they’ve been discussed in the media too.”
