08:24 Wednesday 4th November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
DOTTY MCLEOD: Would you pay more council tax if it meant vital services in Cambridgeshire could be protected? That’s the question that some of the councillors debating proposed cuts to social care think you should be considering. They voted in favour of the idea at a committee meeting yesterday. Our political reporter Hannah Olsson joins me now. So Hannah, what’s being proposed and why?
HANNAH OLSSON: Good morning Dotty. As we’ve already been talking about here on the Breakfast Show, Cambridgeshire County Council is facing major holes in their budget next year, and some big changes are being proposed to meet this deficit. The most significant of these arguably is the £10 million that could go from the Council’s care budget, that’s what it uses to help vulnerable people in the county. So it could mean that not everyone who receives care now would continue to do so in the future, and other people will see their support reduced. Yesterday the committee of elected councillors on the Adult Committee that oversees services for vulnerable adults considered this proposal. I was there, and to be frank it was quite depressing, as councillors faced what they described as the impossible task of fulfilling their responsibilities to vulnerable people as well as the budget they were being given. One councillor actually asked whether someone would have to die of neglect before the risk of these cuts was considered too much. Now there were some councillors there who were saying we shouldn’t just accept the budget, and either ask the Government for more money or consider putting up council tax to raise more money locally. And in the end councillors voted six to five to ask the General Purposes Committee to consider a 5% council tax rise. Now this General Purposes Committee is the one that deals with the election and constitutional matters.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK. So this is a proposal that’s been put forward by councillors. It’s not definitely going ahead.
HANNAH OLSSON: No far from it. The Council isn ‘t actually allowed to raise council tax more than 2% without a referendum, and it wouldn’t even get to a referendum without it being voted for by the whole Council. And you can take, by the fact that the committee yesterday was split on whether or not to even proposes this, that not everyone agrees it’s a good idea. But I suspect yesterday’s meeting won’t be the last time we hear this suggested. As far as I know, no other local council has so far held a referendum on council tax, but as councils across the country face increasingly difficult budget decisions, I’m sure it’s not going to be too long. In fact I heard that it’s being discussed in Oxfordshire County Council at the moment.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So the Council needs to save £40 million next year. Would putting council tax up 5% be enough?
HANNAH OLSSON: Well not if they continue with all the services they provide at the moment. When the proposed cuts were announced last week, the Leader of the Council Steve Count explained to me they would actually need to put up council tax by 17.5% next year to meet the savings. That’s an average of around £200 per household. And of course some people might think that it’s actually worth it. There’s also an option of meeting in the middle, so making some savings, and putting council tax up a bit, which is where this 5% would fall. But again to emphasise, this can’t happen without a full referendum of voters here in Cambridgeshire.
DOTTY MCLEOD: OK Hannah. Thank you very much for that update. Hannah Olsson there our political reporter. Lucy Nethsingha is joining me now, who is the Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Cambridgeshire County Council, and a member of the committee that voted for this proposal yesterday, this proposal to see if it might be possible to increase council tax by 5%. Lucy, which way did you vote on this? Do you think it’s a good idea?
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