Town residents face 3.5 per cent tax rise (From The Northern Echo)

Town residents face 3.5 per cent tax rise

4:53pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Middlesbrough News

HOUSEHOLDERS in Middlesbrough will have their council tax increased by 3.5 per cent from April.

The rise is one of nearly 100 ways the town's council plans to save £13.8m over the next financial year.

Mayor Ray Mallon said he did not want to have to make any of the cuts, but accepted that the country's £1.5 trillion debt bill had to be dealt with.

He has rejected a Government offer of a £1.25m grant to freeze residents' council tax for 2012-13, saying the council would be left with a £20m "black hole" in its finances over the next ten years. He said: "By failing to implement a £3.5m council tax rise, a financial vacuum would occur due to the reliance on yearly council tax increases to keep pace with inflation and other associated costs.

"The public can be assured that if I considered the proposed council tax freeze to be attractive, I would accept it without question. I do not believe the offer by the Government is in the public interest and I reject the proposition."

Following several public consultation events, Mr Mallon is pressing ahead with 98 recommendations for balancing the budget. Feedback has prompted him to make a U-turn on previous proposals, including the withdrawal of a £20 parking charge for residents' parking permits.

However, he also confirmed cutbacks that will go ahead, such as removing lunchtime school crossing wardens, stopping paying for the Town Meal and introducing an entrance fee for the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum to generate £25,000.

When questioned by Councillor Tom Mawston at a council meeting about why the museum, in Stewart Park, was the only one to be singled out, Mr Mallon said he would not rule out imposing entry charges at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art and the Dorman Museum in the future.

He said: "People have come with reasoned arguments which have been compelling, and we are in the best position we can be under the circumstances. It is gloomy, it is bleak, but we are not paralysed and we have to keep on moving forward with the positives."