Cheshire East approves budget and 4.99 per cent council tax hike

Council leader Sam Corcoran (Lab) told a meeting of the full council on Wednesday there was no alternative because ‘central government crashed the economy, local government are having to pick up that’.

The council has a funding gap of £20m for 2023/24, which is why it has to make cuts and savings so it can balance its books.

Savings will be made by measures such as cutting back on the maintenance of parks, public open spaces and other green spaces and reducing library opening hours – although libraries will remain open on Saturdays.

Measures to boost the council’s coffers include increasing parking charges and charging for garden waste collection.

All Conservatives at the meeting, and three non-grouped councillors - Julie Smith, Sarah Pochin and Nicky Wyllie - voted against the budget.

Cllr Sam Corcoran (Image: Cheshire East Council)

The council leader referred to the political and financial ‘chaos’ at national government level and said: “It is remarkable, and a great credit to officers that, despite all that chaos, we have a four-year fully balanced budget before us.”

He said Cheshire East had specific problems to deal with because the previous Conservative administration had left the council with low reserves in 2019.

“If only our reserves were as high as the £26m that the council had when it was formed on April 1 2009, then we could use reserves to ride out the current crisis as some other councils are doing,” he said.

Opposition leader Janet Clowes (Con) blamed the financial crisis facing councils on post pandemic impacts, high inflation and soaring energy prices as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Cllr Janet Clowes (Image: Cheshire East Council)

She stressed this was not the budget of the Conservative group, who felt ‘divorced’ from the process.

“Realistically, this is a budget of cuts - to staff, to frontline services, to assets and to capital projects,” she said.

The Tory group leader said some proposals included as savings still needed further consulting on.

“To put in sums of money against the budget which are still reliant on future consultation is not good practice,” said Cllr Clowes.

Deputy leader Craig Browne (Ind) said 75 per cent of councils were having to increase council tax by the maximum permitted.

Cllr Craig Browne (Image: Cheshire East Council)

“Fortunately we extended our council tax support scheme in 2022/23 to provide a greater level of protection to those families on the lowest incomes,” he said.

Regarding the cuts he said: “There are no easy choices, just options with varying degrees of pain."

The deputy leader said the council was continuing with plans to borrow to invest £6.3m in the highways capital programme, which would be used for preventative work.

Liberal Democrat leader Phil Williams said his party was worried about the council’s ‘dangerously low’ reserves.

Cllr Phil Williams (Image: Cheshire East Council)

He said his group also had concerns about garden waste collection charges and proposals to increase parking charges and introduce fees in towns which don’t currently have them.

The budget was approved, together with a friendly amendment from the Conservatives to look at a lane rental scheme – which could see utility companies charged up to £2,500 ‘rent’ a day for digging up some roads to carry out repairs in the borough.

The council tax increase means a Band D payer will now pay £1,707.39 for the Cheshire East part [precept] of the council tax. When the police and fire precepts are included – and adding in the average for a parish council charge of £63.71 - council tax bills for a Band D resident in Cheshire East will be around £2,109, depending on which parish or town they live in.