13 December 2006
The Government has announced that it will give Eastbourne Borough Council a cash increase of just 2.1% in grant next year towards the costs of the services it provides. The grant will amount to £10.134 million which is an increase of £208,000 over this year’s figure of £9.926 million.
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Spokesperson for Finance, Councillor Chris Williams says, “Once again the Government has announced a disappointing grant settlement that will short change the taxpayers of Eastbourne. When other Council’s are receiving much bigger year on year increases, how can it be fair that Eastbourne gets so little? We still haven’t been properly reimbursed for the extra costs of the concessionary free travel scheme that the Government said would be funded in full from the national pot. This alone will cost local taxpayers an extra £300,000 over two years, money which should be spent locally to improve the services that the residents want.
Even though the Government has short changed us again, I am pleased to confirm that we will be keeping next year’s council tax rise down to just 2.5%. This will continue the trend of low increases over the past two years and honours the commitment we made to taxpayers when we were elected in 2004.
We are announcing this month our plans for next year’s budget, which includes making savings from efficiency and income of over £1.2 million as well as investing new money into services that have been prioritised following public consultation. We will lay our final budget plans in front of the Council next February when we will confirm that Eastbourne’s share of the council tax for 2007/2008 will increase by less than the rate of inflation and less than the pensions increase announced recently by the Government.”
