County chiefs agree 4.9 per cent tax rise (From Gazette & Herald)

County chiefs agree 4.9 per cent tax rise

COUNTY council chiefs have agreed a provisional budget which would see its share of the council tax bill rise by 4.9 per cent.

Councillor John Weighell, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said: "We're determined to maintain and improve services for everyone in North Yorkshire. These budget proposals will enable us to improve investment in some important services while broadly maintaining service levels across the board.

"We cannot finalise our budget until we get the Government's final figures at the end of this month. Our task has been made more difficult by the Government's decision to claw back some £1.05 million of grant for last year - money we have already spent on service improvement.

"This means we have to identify significant efficiency savings, adjust priorities, approach some of our targets more slowly and review our policy towards our reserve balance for future years.

"More specifically we face continuing severe pressure on some services particularly care of vulnerable people, stemming from both reductions in some Government grants and rising costs.

"We will continue to pass to schools the full value of increases in the Government's funding formula; we will continue our investment programme in libraries and in modern technology; and we have succeeded in attracting additional grants for highway maintenance through the Local Transport Plan."

The executive's proposals follow on from a debate at the full council in December.

The council will give an update at the end of January, before a final decision is made in mid-February.

Updated: 12:10 Wednesday, January 12, 2005