Council tax to rise 4.12 per cent (From Gazette & Herald)

Council tax to rise 4.12 per cent

A GRUELLING six-hour, two-part meeting has finally decided what's in store for Ryedale's council tax-payers this year.

It took a full meeting of Ryedale District Council held over two evenings to decide that the authority would increase its portion of the bill by 2.5 per cent, which will mean an extra 8p a week from each household.

Ryedale residents living in a band D property will now pay £1,294.36 per year, up from 1,243.06 last year.

That's a 4.12 per cent rise in total on the precept, which includes increases from North Yorkshire County Council (4.9 per cent), North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (2.59 per cent) and North Yorkshire Police Authority (2.27 per cent).

The rise was finally agreed in spite of a number of last-minute amendments by Liberal councillor John Clark, many of which were defeated.

Coun Clark called for cuts to Ryedale's tourism budget, and asked councillors to slash funding for the council chairman's limousine, and use the money to pay to reopen public toilets in the district.

But chairman Lindsay Burr said: "We have not got a limousine, we have got a fairly robust old Rover."

And former chairman Allin Jenkins confirmed the "fairly robust" three-year-old Rover 75 - which runs on LPG - was worth keeping. The amendment was defeated.

Speaking after the meeting, senior district councillor Robert Wainwright said: "I'm naturally delighted that the council was able to produce a budget that was only a 2.5 increase.

''Hopefully, we will still be able to provide the services we know people value within this.

''It is a very modest increase in comparison to North Yorkshire County Council and the Fire Authority.

''In previous briefings councillors were in agreement that we wanted to keep the rise below the rate of inflation, which indeed we have."

Updated: 15:30 Wednesday, February 22, 2006