Calderdale Council tax hike of nearly five per cent agreed by councillors

Calderdale councillors have approved the authority’s budget for 2021-22 – and provisional spending up to 2023-24 – which will see the council spend around £170.1 million next year.
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It means a Council Tax rise of 4.99 per cent for the borough’s Council Tax payers, the maximum allowed by the Government without a local referendum.

Approval of the budget means cuts to some libraries and community buildings will go ahead unless community groups take them on.

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Other cuts including closing Calderdale five waste and recycling stations on their two quietest days will also take place.

Calderdale Council leader councillor Tim SwiftCalderdale Council leader councillor Tim Swift
Calderdale Council leader councillor Tim Swift

The authority’s two information centres, at Halifax and Hebden Bridge, and Mixenden Activity Centre at Halifax, will also close.

The Council Tax rise – which in the standard measure Band D property will be an extra £77.26 next year, £51.50 in Band A properties which are the most numerous in Calderdale – is made up of 1.99 per cent regular Council Tax and three per cent ring-fenced for social care.

Leader of the Council, and ruling Labour group leader, Coun Tim Swift (Town) said at Budget Council: “This is a budget brought forward in unprecedented times, it is a budget to provide the stability we need to combat a perfect storm.”

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Coun Swift said proposals included growth such as spending on community wardens, CCTV systems, tackling flood management and climate change, and demonstrating ambition for towns including developing plans for new rail and bus stations for Halifax and a rail station for Elland.

The budget also invested in social care in terms of meeting continuing demand and ensuring social care staff earned at least the Low Pay Commission recommended level.

The budget gave a solid base to build on, he said.

But Conservative leader Coun Steven Leigh (Ryburn) disagreed, highlighting the £9m annual cost of servicing debt due to Labour’s borrowing and also criticised previous use of reserves, meaning service cuts were having to be made.

Liberal Democrat leader James Baker (Warley) said the council needed to be more commercial, making more of its assets instead of cutting, including some ideas his party had proposed including a council lottery which Labour had previously accepted but not acted on.

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The debate was acrimonious, Labour councillors criticising opposition groups for not offering alternative budgets – Coun Swift said even if these were not adopted they would set out those parties’ visions for Calderdale.

Coun Swift said challenges, after ten years of austerity which had seen funding given by Government slashed, and the impact of dealing with the pandemic with its extra costs and lost income ongoing could not be ignored by a responsible council.

Coun Stephen Baines (Con, Northowram and Shelf) said austerity measures were a result of the amount of debt 2010’s departing Labour Government had left.