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16
Feb 2024
Ripon and Pateley Lib Dems urge Tory council to press Chancellor to maintain taxes
Liberal Democrats in Ripon and Pateley Bridge are calling for Conservative-run North Yorkshire Council to write to the government calling for next month’s Budget to feature significant extra funding for council services.
Cllr Andrew Murday, who represents Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale and Cllr Barbara Brodigan, who represents Ripon Ure Bank and Spa, have tabled a notice of motion to the full meeting of North Yorkshire Council on Wednesday.
The motion calls for England’s largest council by area to press Chancellor Jeremy Hunt not to reduce council spending to fund tax cuts.
The proposal is set to be considered as the authority debates its spending plan for the coming year, which includes using its dwindling reserves to cover a £41.6m deficit, despite having made numerous efficiency savings from becoming a unitary authority.
Cllr Murday said the council was having to make unacceptable cuts to services just to avoid what would become a catastrophic financial deficit.
He highlighted proposals for budget savings this year including reductions in home-to-school transport provision and support to local communities.
Cllr Murday said:
To help maintain services, the meeting will see the council’s 90 elected councillors consider levying an average increase of almost £90 in annual council tax payments from April.
The council’s leadership has maintained that the financial pressures coming from increasing costs for social care and special educational needs and disability services are unsustainable without more funding and that the long-awaited review of funding for local government is needed urgently.
The council’s Tory leaders have repeatedly stated they have lobbied the government for extra funding to provide services across the large area for several years, and have worked with national local government bodies to highlight the pressures certain services are facing.
Cllr Gareth Dadd, the authority’s deputy leader and finance boss, who declined to comment on the notice of motion ahead of the meeting, has previously emphasised the council is focusing its available funding on preserving services for the most vulnerable residents.
Leader of the council’s Labour group, Cllr Steve Shaw-Wright said:
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