The Bradford Council Conservative Group has today tabled budget proposals which include a Council Tax rise of just 1.8% in the next financial year.
In 2008-09, the Tory-led authority agreed the lowest increase of any council in Yorkshire and Humber at 2.2%.
Explaining the move, Bradford Council Conservative Leader Cllr Kris Hopkins said he believed it vital that the local authority did everything it could to assist residents across the district cope with the worsening economic situation.
“Councils are somewhat limited in their ability to stimulate the economy in their locality, but one thing we can do is keep Council Tax rises down to a minimum,” said Cllr Hopkins. “We achieved this in Bradford district in the current year and, with the support of other parties in Council, hopefully we can do it again in the next financial year.”
The small rise in Council tax was just one of a very wide-ranging set of proposals unveiled by the Conservative Group Leader at a meeting of the Council’s Executive in Bradford City Hall earlier today.
In addition to a series of cost-saving measures across all of the Council’s Departments including cutbacks in staffing levels, merging of services and tougher efficiency targets, Cllr Hopkins announced plans to inject millions of pounds of capital spending into a number of high profile regeneration and sporting projects including the delivery of the City Park, Odsal Sporting Village, a city centre swimming pool, a new health centre in Keighley, community hubs in both Baildon and Bingley and an older people’s centre in the heart of Bradford.
“As well as offering very high quality facilities for residents, these projects are also likely to lead to the creation of significant numbers of jobs for local people across the district,” Cllr Hopkins explained.
Substantial funding will be released to support education across the district including through the Building Schools for the Future programme.
And individual pots of money have been set aside to support play schemes and parenting groups, fund adaptations to older people’s homes, establish allotments, open health and wellbeing cafes, set up bursary schemes for high achieving able-bodied and disabled athletes and to reward academic excellence, assist uniformed groups, allow service personnel free access to leisure facilities, scrap the £1 booking fee on tickets for amateur drama productions, increase access to professional financial and legal advice, pay for extra winter gritting and promote the work of credit unions.
“As Conservatives, we instinctively believe in providing the best possible value for money for Council Tax payers and the deepening economic crisis has made it more important than ever that we achieve this end,” Cllr Hopkins continued.
“But equally, we believe it vital that we do what we can in these difficult economic times to support community initiatives and to deliver on the key infrastructural projects which we know can and will have a hugely positive impact on the long-term future of Bradford district.
“The Conservative Group’s budget proposals provide a sensible, cost-effective but also exciting way forward for our district.
“We very much hope they will receive cross-party support in Council.”
