Council Tax to rise 2.9%
Lowest rise in last decade
If I were a member of the Labour Party or a Labour voter (and I’m neither) I’d probably be full of praise for the party in South Tyneside, such headlines can look good in print, however, a rise is still a rise, and rises are all we have ever seen here.We have never experienced a standstill, freeze, or reduction.
For a Labour Cabinet to approve £10m of spending cuts to try and balance the budget and succeed is no mean feat, I suppose there were a few dissenting voices in the party, some little pain would have been necessary to reduce spending by that much. However, mainline services have remained largely untouched, a few service charges will be raised and this will cause some suffering.
It was so close, yet so far away, as though they don’t want the mantle for being the first Labour council in the UK to cut the size of the council tax bill. Would bring them opprobrium from the rest of the movement?
- How do you feel about the news?
- Are you happy?
- Would a little extra effort have produced a council tax freeze?
- Would some hard effort produce a reduction?
- Do our Opposition parties have better well thought out proposals (now there’s the rub)?
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
