Council tax payers in Huntingdonshire will pay an extra 10 pence a week for the wide range of services they receive from the district council.

Presenting the budget to the full council on Wednesday (21 February 2007), Councillor Terry Rogers said the council’s financial plan proposed capital spending in the coming year of nearly £20 million to provide new facilities or maintain existing ones. There would also be extra revenue spending to cover inflation on existing services and some specific service improvements such as the extension of concessionary bus fares across the county.

He said the financial plan for the next 11 years required the council having to find £4.7 million savings, and he thanked members for highlighting ideas for savings, adding: “We have identified how to achieve the savings targets for this year and next, and they will have little impact on service delivery.”

Councillor Rogers added that the council’s long term approach to financial planning gave time to plan future savings in a careful and considered manner to ensure that it maximised the benefits for local people within the resources available.

The proposed increase of 10 pence a week works out at just under five per cent, the level above which the Government has announced that it will consider capping excessive increases. It means that residents in a band D property will pay £109.91 a year for services that range from safe car parks, clean streets, closed circuit television, housing advice and leisure centres, to refuse collection and recycling. This is an increase  of £5.22 a year.

Councillor Ian Bates, leader of the council said: “This is good news as we are in line with what the Government has asked for, but it does remove a fundamental right for us to increase council tax to protect or further enhance services if that is what local people want.”

Huntingdonshire District Council has one of the lowest levels of council tax in the country, well below the average, which is £154.