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Council Leader, Councillor John Peach, announced the good news at a
meeting of the Cabinet on Monday 3
September. He reaffirmed his commitment to repeat what was the
lowest rise out of all unitary authorities in the country this year
of 1.4 per cent for the next two years, but then promised that for
2010/11 the increase would again be no more than 1.4 per cent – far
less than any forecast for inflation.
“This is great news for the council
tax payers of Peterborough,” said Councillor Peach. “Our philosophy
is based on minimising overheads, reducing bureaucracy and improving
value for money. We want to make sure tax-payers in Peterborough are
getting value for money and that funds are available to improve
frontline services to the community while ensuring the impact on
council tax levels is as low as possible.
“We have introduced a business
transformation policy that is overhauling the city council’s
operations in a way which reflects modern business practices. While
keeping this year’s council tax increase down to just 1.4 per cent,
we have been able to allocate an additional £5.4 million to
delivering improved frontline services for the benefit of residents.
“It is our intention to continue
this efficiency drive will continue as part of our promise to keep
council tax rises below inflation while channelling increased
funding to services that matter to our people.”
The additional funding for 2007/08
is being ploughed into front-line services, including adult social
care, looked after children, a new street-cleaning hit squad, a new
static library at Hampton, extra resources for highways, and
environmental enforcement wardens.
“This autumn will see the
government’s spending review, which will set out our funding for the
next three years,” said Councillor Peach. “However, the government
needs to give us our fair share of funding and in particular
recognise the pressures we face through our growth agenda, as well
as the impact of migration.
“We cannot have a government that
does not pay us the grant that is rightly due to the taxpayers of
Peterborough. For this financial year they are already holding back
a total of £2.9 million from the people of Peterborough.
“However, despite that shortfall I
am asking my Cabinet colleagues together with the corporate
management team when setting out our priorities to deliver these
tight financial targets through efficiency and transformation and
not by cutting services.”
Setember 2007 -
Peterborough UK Community Website
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