2.5% increase in council tax proposed

Following support from a public consultation,Telford and Wrekin proposes to raise council tax next year by 2.5%. Details of the consultation can be found by visiting www.telford.gov.uk/budget

The proposed increase - which will go before the council's cabinet next week - is equivalent to 41p per week for the average (Band B) home in the borough.

It follows the biggest ever public response to the Council's budget proposals in which it received nearly 2,300 responses on what it should do with council tax, together with more than 1,000 suggestions on ways that it can save money.

In the consultation, almost two in three respondents said the Council should increase council tax (37 per cent favoured a 2.5 per cent increase and 26 per cent a 3.5 per cent increase), while 37 per cent wanted it to accept a Government offer of a one year grant to freeze council tax.

Even among the people who favoured the one-off grant to freeze council tax, significant numbers did not want to see the proposed cuts to services

On top of a funding gap of £40m that the Council must close by 2014, accepting the Government grant and freezing council tax would leave Telford & Wrekin Council facing a financial blackhole and needing to find an extra £1.4m each year through even higher council tax or deeper service cuts.

Also in response to the feedback the Council has received through the consultation, it is proposing to make a number of changes to its package of cuts from services next year. The key changes are:

• Scrapping a proposed £20 charge for a permit scheme to allow Ironbridge residents to park in council car parks in the Gorge
• Phasing an increase in charges for low level preventative care services from £8 to £12 over a longer period. It had been proposed that this happened from April 2012, but instead it is planned that the charges rise to £10 and then to £12 by October 2012
• Scrapping a scheme to charge shops £50 for a licence to display goods on the street. In its place, the Council will work with Wellington Town Council , Shropshire Chamber of Commerce and traders to develop a system to promote a café style street culture, with shops, residents and other partners agreed on the look and feel of high street areas
• The Council will also leave winter gritting routes unchanged

The Council's budget proposes nearly £9m in cuts to services to help it meet the savings that it must find, while protecting as far as possible front line services through further cuts to senior management, better procurement and more efficient ways of working.

Next year, £8.2m in savings will come from staff budgets, rising to a total of £17m by 2014.

The council tax increase, if backed, is likely to see the Council have the third lowest council tax in the Midlands , while it still faces significant pressures on its budget due to increasing demand for its services. Examples of this demand include growing numbers of older people and looked after children, inflation and reduced income because of the recession.