Approved by Bolton Council: A hike in council tax, millions of pounds of cuts and hundreds of job losses

10:28pm Wednesday 20th February 2013 in News

MILLIONS of pounds of council cuts have been approved by town hall chiefs tonight - but the taxpayer will have to pay more for less as a controversial council tax hike is also agreed.

Despite Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition, Bolton Council's ruling Labour group passed next year's budget, which includes more than £40 million of cuts as well as a 3.5 per cent increase in council tax.

The move will also result in more than 500 council jobs being axed.

Bolton Council will now lose out on government grants of £2 million because it rejected the prime minister's offer to local authorities that did not increase council tax.

Following the rise, residents in band D properties will now pay £1,459.24 per year compared to £1,409.83 last year.

They will also pay an additional police precept of £149.33, and £57.64 for fire.

There was a large-scale protest outside Bolton Town Hall by union members before the meeting, and the police had to be called to deal with disruption by members of the public inside the council chamber, delaying proceedings by more than an hour.

Bolton Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris said: “This budget will have a big impact on local services, local people and local jobs — it is impossible to cut further, on top of the 60 million we have already saved, without having a very serious impact.”

Comments(12)

Ikillgobbykids says...
10:49pm Wed 20 Feb 13

I think that's the final nail in the coffin for Cllr Morris's time in office!!!

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BWFC71 says...
10:55pm Wed 20 Feb 13

How about Cllr "3 jobs" Morris and the other counil leaders actually be part of the norm and give themselves a pay-cut? If they don't then what is the point when they are going to get richer and the poor of this town are just going to get poorer.

There again a pay-cut wouldn't affect Morris that much considering his income is over £150,000/annum between all his 3 jobs (of which his job with the Health care sector of AGMA being approximately £70,000/annum)!!!

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Boltontoday says...
11:59pm Wed 20 Feb 13

What's most important, 3.5% to the council or 3.5% on tax payers pockets?

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temujin says...
4:58am Thu 21 Feb 13

No attempt to save money and preserve front line services by:

1. Sharing delivery of services with other councils - there's growing evidence of the savings this can produce;

2. Cutting down on central corporate charges - very high in Bolton's case;

3. Using part of reserves - recommended for consideration by the Audit Commission.

Why not?

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ianfrank says...
8:10am Thu 21 Feb 13

What about cutting the number of councillors per ward? Especially when councillors earn in excess of £40k per year as per councillor Morris for year 2011/2012

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Old Boltonian says...
8:52am Thu 21 Feb 13

I wonder if readers would be interested to find out how much our council is paying out each year in benefits, especially housing? I understand from national data published that it currently costs Bolton around £110 million annually. In the light of these terrible cuts and council increases, are voters assured that enough is being done to police the system to ensure that only genuine needs are being met?

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temujin says...
8:54am Thu 21 Feb 13

Increase exceeds 2%.

Why aren't we entitled to a referendum?

Council should clarify.

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BWFC71 says...
9:21am Thu 21 Feb 13

temujin wrote:
Increase exceeds 2%.

Why aren't we entitled to a referendum?

Council should clarify.
Because of precepts towards the Police and Fire.

Basically its an opt-out and as such a referendum is not required.

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BWFC71 says...
9:22am Thu 21 Feb 13

I wonder if Morris and his cronies are feeling the austerity measures they are giving the rest of the Bolton populous? I mean given that they have not had a pay-cut nor a pay-freeze but in fact a pay-rise every year since the recession whilst staff have had a pay-freeze for 4 years.

WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER, unless you work in politics!!!!

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stantheman133 says...
3:34pm Thu 21 Feb 13

Boy am I glad I don't live there anymore.
Councillor Morris should take a hike.

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judyben says...
4:53pm Thu 21 Feb 13

I suspect that when council tax bills arrive we will be paying more than 3.5%extra in real terms (ie actual monthly payments) compared to this year. What improvements take place remain to be seen. The state of roads everywhere is deplorable and the potholes on minor,major and side roads are many and deep! Someone should look at the Fat Cat salaties at the Town Hall. If this were a meritocracy Cliff Morris would have to be paying US to stay in power. Disgusting!

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temujin says...
6:50pm Thu 21 Feb 13

BWFC71 wrote:
temujin wrote:
Increase exceeds 2%.

Why aren't we entitled to a referendum?

Council should clarify.
Because of precepts towards the Police and Fire.

Basically its an opt-out and as such a referendum is not required.
"The government had put a cap on council tax rises of two per cent, meaning that any increase higher than that would trigger a town referendum.

But the council has calculated its rise excluding waste and transport levies and fire and police precepts, meaning its figure is technically 1.2 per cent.

Inclusion of the levies and precepts brings the figure up to 3.5 per cent."

The DCLG say this is cheating. Are they saying it's contrary to the law? If so, they should publish their legal opinion so that challenges can be mounted.

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