Archived press
release.
No increase in Council Tax, efficiencies of over £2m and a
commitment to safeguarding priority services is the core of the
2011/12 budget for Suffolk Coastal agreed last night
(Thursday).
The district council part of the Council Tax will remain
unchanged at £149.40 for a Band D home, and the County Council and
the Police have also frozen their charges this year. However, the
110 or so town and parish councils in the district may have changed
their figures so people may still see a slight alteration in their
bills.
“We have frozen our Council Tax this year, which I am sure in
these cash-strapped times will be more welcome news for our
communities, especially as it follows seven years of us keeping our
rise to below five per cent,” said Cllr Ray Herring, Leader of
Suffolk Coastal.
“These are tough financial times for all of us, particularly for
councils, but there are still good reasons to look forward
positively in our district. Having saved an average £1 million a
year for the last 10 years, it was very challenging to reduce our
costs by another £2.2m but we have minimised the impact on our
services, our employees and most of all our communities.
“What we and our communities see as our priority services have
been protected, and we can still look forward to key projects
proceeding such as the coast defence works at Central Felixstowe
and Thorpeness. Our budget will continue our commitment to
providing efficient, effective, engaged and value for money
services,” added Cllr Herring.
The Government Formula Grant to help pay for local services has
fallen by over £1.1m to £6.3m in the coming year, and falling
income, inflation and rising costs left the Council with a budget
gap between the cost of maintaining all its current services and
its total expected income of over £2m.
The Council’s budget requirement for 2011/12 is £13.789m, down
£1.9m from last year’s £15.679m. The total Council Tax income will
be £7.436 million.
“We have thoroughly reviewed our current services, and our heads
of service and the Cabinet members responsible for their services
have presented to Cllr Robert Whiting and me the difficult choices
on future spending.
“At the forefront of our service assessments have been our
communities and I think we have achieved the best possible package
of savings that will keep to a minimum the negative impact on
them,” added Cllr Herring.
Partnership working is at the heart of many of the new savings.
Over £310,000 will be saved in the coming year from Suffolk
Coastal’s closer working with Waveney, including its shared
corporate management team and its shared computer staff. The
Council’s partners, Suffolk Coastal Services and Norfolk Property
Services are scheduled to make savings of nearly £400,000.
“I would stress that we have used our experience of delivering
efficiencies, of the benefits we know that partnership working can
provide, and our history of being ready to change the way we work.
This has been a carefully thought through approach and we also
engaged with our communities so they too could confirm their
priorities and what services they most use and need.
“We have inevitably had to make some changes to the way our
services are provided, but our focus has again been to wring the
maximum savings from the way they are provided, rather than simply
ending the service,” added Cllr Herring.
To help meet the Council’s financial challenge 19 staff will be
leaving under the voluntary redundancy scheme, which is around
seven per cent of its permanent full time staff.
“The stark reality is that we still need to find a further £2.3m
in savings by 2014/15, so we now will have to redouble our efforts.
However, I believe we have the know-how in our Council and
increasingly in our communities to succeed.
“Our staff deserve praise for once again being ready for the
challenge. They have been central to our ability to deliver not
only next year’s savings but also our excellent record of
efficiencies and improved services over recent years. We had hoped
to have more time to achieve the savings we need to make but the
scale of the challenge meant that we had to seek so many voluntary
redundancies.
“Largely thanks to our Local Strategic Partnership, our towns
and parish councils and our community and voluntary groups have
been gaining new skills and resources that could help them exploit
the forthcoming opportunities for the district provided by national
initiatives such as Localism and the Big Society,” added Cllr
Herring.
The Band D charge for a Suffolk Coastal home is made up of
£149.40 for Suffolk Coastal District Council, £160.74 for Suffolk
Police, and £1,126.53 for Suffolk County Council, giving a total of
£1,436.67. In addition there is also a charge for the local town or
parish council which varies from zero for Boulge, Burgh,
Dallinghoo, Hemley, and Ramsholt parishes, to the £108.17 of
Aldeburgh and £110.23 of Leiston town councils. The average Council
Tax including the town or parish precept for a Band D home is
£1,481.32.