Cheshire East Council has voted to approve its budget plan for 2018-19 at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, 22nd February.
As a result Council Tax will increase by 5.99 per cent in the next financial year, the maximum increase a Council is allowed to make without holding a local referendum.
This will add £1.39 per week to the average household Council Tax bill and a Band D property bill will rise from £1,324.92 to £1,404.28 – representing an increase of £1.53 per week.
The council also voted to allocate an additional £2m for highways from capital reserves, in response to concerns over the condition of some of the borough's roads, and a further £150,000 for reactive repairs (from the revenue budget).
Additionally, £2m has been earmarked from the New Homes Bonus scheme to be used in our communities, via a method under consideration.
The Council says the budget will deliver balanced finances in 2018-19, with net revenue spending of £268.8m and total capital investment of £326.1m identified over the next three years. A total of £197m is estimated to be spent over the next three years on maintaining and improving our highways network.
The budget-setting meeting of council took place against a challenging national context of an overall public sector deficit, which is being partly met by big reductions in government grants to councils, and rising demand for both adult social care and children in care.
For Cheshire East, this means expected reductions of central government grants, inflationary costs and rising demand totalling more than £70m over the next three years.
Jan Willis, Cheshire East Council's interim executive director of corporate services, said: "These financial reports and budget outline how the council has continued to build on the solid achievements of recent years and continues to maintain robust financial health.
"The year ahead presents a number of challenges for all UK local authorities, as increasing demand in care services for children and adults, plus other pressures, are compounded by falls in government funding – a funding reduction totalling £14.8m this year for Cheshire East and set to fall by a further £11.9m in 2018/19.
"In Cheshire East, the number of residents receiving care and support from adult social care is increasing by four per cent a year and the number of children in social care placements has increased by 17 per cent in the last year, in line with other councils.
"The council's net expenditure on adult social care services was almost £100m in 2016/17, which is three-times the spending on any other service area. This council will continue to prioritise services for vulnerable people, despite the financial challenges. However, this means other services will need to deliver savings."
Comments
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They fritter and waste our MILLIONS on hair brained schemes and flawed models and we the residents and tax payers are left to foot the ever increasing bill for their incompetence . Without checking i can imagine only the independents and few common sense Labour and Cons voted against this whilst the lemming majority nodded it through with no shame, no care, no consideration. Remember this folks come the next election.Absolutely shameful... Merge East and West ASAP !
Something tells me that they know what the referendum result would be!
How can it be 5.99 per cent when inflation is half that ?
I think we campaign for 6 per cent and get rid of this shower
2018-19 bill +6% on previous year, +21% over ten years. Of course heavily skewed by recent increases, my 2015-16 bill was only +5% over seven years, the following years were then +9%, +14% and +21% compared with my 2008-9 "baseline".
In the same period, so from 2008 to date:
Average earnings (nominal, in other words not adjusted for inflation): +17%
CPI inflation: +22%
RPI inflation: +31%
I just wonder what the similar cumulative total of Fiscal waste by CEC over this same period has been, it's multi Millions no doubt certainly equivalent to the debt of some third world countries I suggest .
How strange CEC never want to demonstrate prudence, fiscal restraint, and remove unnecessary duplication. The sooner East and West is merged the better . We really cant afford for these bungling CEC incompetents to remain in post a minute longer.
"These financial reports and budget outline how the Council continued to build on the solid achievements of recent years and continues to maintain robust financial health".
So plenty of funds to pay suspended members and no danger of reduction in pensions etc. for the "top guns".
Meanwhile Wilmslow centre is becoming a ghost town, soon no doubt Hoopers will sit in regal isolation amongst the empty units.
Perhaps Cheshire East should have an away day at East Hampshire Council [paid for by us of course] to learn how to run a grown up organisation.
I see the subject of pot holes has arisen again.
What I had hoped for, was a week of minus 15 degrees C, and watch all the recent "pot hole repair" (sic) arise. They must be experts, who do the work, because I notice the white markings for them to be repaired, and some nearby much bigger ones missed totally for repair, and then see the same pot holes repaired again and again etc. I have seen the same holes repeatedly repaired less than a year between them. So much for the brains at CEC,
You are concerned that Wilmslow is slowly becoming a ghost town as more businesses fail. Many other people with good memories are similarly worried.
It's already on record that both Wilmslow & Handforth town centres are already seriously under trading.
So, unless Cheshire East and Wilmslow Town council work together & pro-actively attract business and shoppers into both towns, then there's a retail disaster waiting to happen.
And yet on the other hand, Cheshire East Planning seem to be "hell bent " on changing the local Summerfields Village shopping parade up the A34 into an 'out of town retail centre' with one of tge biggest Lidls in the UK.
This will draw shoppers away and have an adverse impact on the vitality of Wilmslow & Handforth town centres. To make matters worse Lidl's proposals will also remove the community's leisure & recreational facilities by turning it over to major retail, forever.
And yet we are told that this is all for wider aisles to buy an 'identical range of goods '(apparently) customer loos, improved staff accomodation & 'an expansion of the bakery product lines.' Where's the economic sense of that ?
For the sake of both Wilmslow & Handforth town centres, let's hope that when Cheshire East Northern Planning Committee members reconvene for the third time, they see the application for what it really is and reject the proposals for good.
Regards,
Paul Roue