Conservatives who broke the Council Tax freeze promise part 2

Which Conservatives broke their parties 2010 election promise to freeze Council Tax for 2 years. 

Even though the Conservatives didn't win, their promise morphed into the Coalition Agreement.

Liberal Democrat run Councils followed the agreement. The Conservatives in Cambridgeshire have broken this promise. The Fire Authority has 17 members which are appointed by the County Council and Peterborough Council. Below is how they voted. It should be noted the Liberal Democrats wanted a higher rate of Council Tax than was passed.

A petition to stop a Council Tax increase!

The St Ives Branch of the Conservatives have been pushing a petition against any rise in Council Tax by St Ives Town Council. This is the only Independently run Town Council in the Huntingdonshire Constituency and is up for election this year.

It would seem reasonable to me if the St Ives Conservative Branch was also against all other rises in Council Tax pertaining to St Ives. But they are not. Many of their members are Councillors and Representatives on local authorities which are looking to up their portions of the Council Tax by 2.95% to 3.5%.

So how are the prominent members of St Ives Conservative Branch? Here are some:

Both County Councillors (2.95% increase) are also members of the Cambs Fire Authority (2.95% increase).

As for the District Council:

These 5 District Councillors include Cllr Ablewhite, who as District Council Leader, is proposing a 3.5% increase.

So what we have is a load of Councillors jumping up and down about an increase in Council Tax by St Ives Town Council whereas local authorities they are on are upping the Council tax anyway. This is just wrong.

The Conservatives should remember what was said in the 2010 Conservative Manifesto. To remind them it says:

What is rather ironic is St Ives Town Council is likely to follow the Coalition policy and keep the Council Tax freeze.

So there we have have it. The St Ives Conservatives are against their Town Council raising Council Tax but are for Council Tax increases in other Councils they are on.  All the Conservatives run Councils should be abiding by the 2010 Conservative Manifesto and freezing their Council Tax.

What about the others.....

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority has problems. In the 2010/11 Medium Term Plan, they were looking at a standstill grant.

With the grant announcement there will be a £973,000 cut in grant for 2011/12. The grant will be further cut in 2012/13 by £444,000. This is faster than the Fire authority expected.

They were looking at a 10% cut over 3 years. This is a 10% cut over 2 years.

Cambridgeshire County Council

Not too sure whether their figures are correct. This is because of the following statement:

So I've taken the figures as they are. This leads to two options. These are a far better than expected turnout with an extra £24 million for 2011/12 and an extra £23 million for 2012/13 OR this has problems with an extra cut of £12 million for 2011/12 and a cut of £14 million for 2012/13. 

 2011/12

2012/13

Firefighter cuts 'could cost lives'

St Neots News and Crier - 14/10/2010

Of course the fire fighters are right in this respect. Changes in the Fire Service could cost the lives of people in accidents and fires. This is what the Fire Service is here to do. The question behind all this is why the Fire Service should be an exception to the cuts. Saving lives, like the use of children, in argument makes the whole point emotional.

This emotional argument can be used across many different services. From Police to Hospitals to Armed Forces and the rest an argument can be put up to save all services from cuts. The alternative is to raise taxation. I will point out that to get rid of the deficit by raising taxation would mean a doubling of Income Tax. That is 20 pence rate to 40 pence. 40 pence rate to 80 pence and 50 pence rate to 100 pence.

Nowhere in any of these emotional arguments is the argument for increasing taxation to pay for these "life saving" services. It is all about "fighting cuts" instead of increasing taxation. I know what these people are worried about and that is given the choice the taxpayer will opt for cuts rather than tax increases. Easier to use the emotional argument than argue for tax increases.

Likely St Neots Council Tax increases.

With 2010/11 Council Tax (CT) setting getting towards its final stage I thought I would take a look at the likely final outcome. These are the Band D amounts. Band D represents the percentage increases so whichever Band your property is in these are the increases. I have divided up the Council Tax into their constituent amounts. I have three different totals as two annexed areas will be joining SNTC area on 1st April 2010.

St Neots: 2.53% increase. This is smaller than the 2.95% sub total because SNTC was able to cut its portion of the CT with all the new money from the annexed areas.

ex Eynesbury Hardwicke: On 1st April 2010 the Town Ward of Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish is annexed. CT payers currently pay zero in the Parish portion. On joining SNTC they will liable for SNTC CT rates. To go from zero to £84.24 (Band D) is an infinite percentage. All this extra money SNTC gets has gone mainly to cover increased spending and some to reduce the CT.

Love's Farm: On 1st April 2010 Love's Farm part of St Neots Rural Parish Council is annexed. CT payers at Band D will see there current Parish CT of £16.95 rise to the SNTC rate of £84.24. This represents a 397% rise. All this extra money SNTC gets has gone mainly to cover increased spending and some to reduce the CT.