Independent councillor opposes tax cuts
By Rachel Charman
Cllr Martin Terry, leader of the Independents and councillor for Westborough, has spoken out over yesterday’s proposed Council Tax cut.
In yesterday’s cabinet meeting, Southend Borough Council proposed an amendment to its draft 2010/11 budget that it claims will boost tax payers.
The Cabinet recommended to the Council to approve a General Fund net revenue budget for 2010/11 of £130.491 million with a proposed Council Tax increase of 2.95% (which equates to £1,117.89) for Band D properties.
The Cabinet claims that represents a reduction on an earlier proposal, in which Band D properties were recommended for a 3.95% Council Tax increase.
Cllr Terry claims that these cuts cannot be made without “suffering” in terms of public services, and that the savings made by the cut will not make any significant difference to Southend residents.
Cllr Terry told Councilbust.com: “The issue of tax and spend has to be taken seriously and not treated as an election bribe.
“The amounts saved by this cut are miniscule to the average household when the problems across the town are taken into proper consideration.
“We are suffering from having a low tax base from previous irresponsible budgeting by the Tories; only recently the Tory Leader said he wanted to see year on year sustainable increases, [which is] a recognition that past decisions were damaging to the town.
“The suffering I refer to is our literally crumbling infrastructure. The roads are falling apart after years of under or no funding.
“We are the only major town in this region to not subsidise bus routes, hence the route network collapses at 7pm.
“We have over 5,000 people on the housing list waiting for a decent affordable home.
“We have an out of control private housing sector due to lack of enforcement.
“We have to leave our parks open at night because we cant even afford to lock the gates making peoples lives a misery, and we have cut back in many areas of enforcement such as noise control, making residents lives a nightmare.
“This is the same tired old party politics we are seeing from a desperate Tory administration trying to cook up ways to cling onto power.
“This is an embarrassing u-turn by them, and a damaging u-turn for Southend.
“Yes low taxes are good but the cost of these cuts has to be affordable and we simply can’t afford them.”
