Councillor Couzens hits back on Council Tax

Council finance portfolio holder, Councillor Greg Couzens has hit back at critics of the near 4% rise in Council Tax.

Councillor Couzens said: "The easiest and a political decision would be to substantially reduce the council tax, I chose to take the most difficult option and I knew that it would not be popular, but in the long run the general public are intelligent enough to realise that addressing long term issues and making the borough a better place to live in is more important.

"We are not the highest level of band D council tax across AGMA. Four authorities, Stockport, Salford, Oldham and Blackpool have a higher level of band D tax. Two authorities Blackburn and Bury have only a slightly lower tax at Band D. This means that these authorities have set lower levels of increase this year but have had higher levels of increases in previous years.

"The rate of inflation is currently between 3.5% and 3.7%, consistent with our level of council tax increase.

"If we did set the level of increase at the average level for AGMA, the implications on the council tax at band D would be less than 50p per week.

"By setting the increase at 3.9%, we are able to provide around £1.3m additional resources for investment above what we would be able to provide with an average increase. This funding is supporting a range of investment decisions that will make a real difference to the borough, addressing problems such as our roads, not just pot hole filling but resurfacing.

"I pledged three years ago to bring the council tax increase down at a sustainable level and I have kept to my word, year on year we are bringing it down,

"2010/11 is the lowest increase in over 15 years."