Policing costs see rise in council tax

COUNCIL tax bills are to rise slightly due to increased policing costs.

Oldham Council froze its element of the bill as the budget package for next year, which includes £23 million cuts, was formally approved last night.

With no rise from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, only the police precept has risen - by 1.99 per cent.

A Band D council tax payer will see the bill rise from £1,599.92 to £1,602.89 from April, an overall increase of 0.19 per cent. While the parish council precept added for Saddleworth properties has been frozen at £19.35 for Band D, householders in Shaw and Crompton will see a rise of 1.93 per cent in their parish council precept, taking a Band D property from £14.54 to £14.82.

Council house rents will rise by 6.95 per cent (£4.95 a week on a 48-week collection period). Council leader Jim McMahon stressed that he had no pleasure in moving the budget and that difficult decisions had been made.

He said Oldhamers were paying the price for the banking crisis and that poorer Labour authorities had lost out on Government funding at the expense of wealthier Tory areas.

“Families in Oldham are struggling and that’s why we have taken the decision to freeze council tax,” he said. “Despite what the Government has said, they have not funded a council tax freeze, they have funded a proportion of the council tax freeze.”

He added: “Where other towns are managing decline and are actually quite negative about the future of their place, we are doing the opposite. The decisions we are taking to create jobs, to regenerate Oldham and to deal with the Oldham to-do list need a strong stomach. The alternative to not investing in Oldham is more unemployment, another generation lost and a town going downhill. We believe Oldham is better than that.”

Amendments put forward by the opposition Lib-Dem group to spend £603,000 on helping the elderly and children in care adjust to service changes, extra gully cleaning and improving street cleaning were defeated.