by Gerry Warren

Canterbury City Council will claim it has shielded residents from the worst cuts in services when the executive meets to recommend its draft budget on Thursday.

It says there will be no increase in its share of council tax, most charges for services have been frozen and funding has been continued for vulnerable people.

It has also avoided removing dog and litter bins, charging for garden and clinical waste collections and closing five more public toilets.

The authority is wrestling with a £1.8 million reduction in its government grant, a fall in property-related income and an increase in borrowing costs for capital projects, like the Marlowe Theatre.

It has meant the council having to find savings of £800,000 through restructuring its operations and cutting staff, and saving £156,000 by sharing services with neighbouring councils.

Other savings which the council claims the public accepted in the budget consultation will also be implemented.

The council says it will continue to find cheaper ways of providing other services and take more than £1 million from reserves to lessen the impact of the grant reduction.

A new government grant – the New Homes Bonus, worth £400,000 – has helped soften the blow. The transfer of responsibility for the concessionary bus fares scheme to Kent County Council is also more favourable to the city council than first thought.

Leader Cllr John Gilbey said: “Our proposed budget freezes council tax, has very few increases in charges for services – including car parks – and continues to fund things the public told us were important to them.

“However, we face a very difficult future, with ongoing grant reductions. We know we are going to face another 11.5 per cent reduction in grant for 2012/13, which will require us to constantly look for savings or ways to increase income in future years. We will continue to talk with residents and businesses about how we achieve this.”

Opposition leader Cllr Alex Perkins claims the council had not listened to residents.

He said: “Every day local people tell me they are sick of spin and just want decent services. The council have simply ceased to listen. They launch public consultations that ignore half of the options and then ignore the responses they do get.

“The last few years have been an administrative disaster for Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay. Valued services have been cut to the bone and fees have gone up.

“They’ve closed toilets, museums, local offices and visitors’ centres. They have cut back on services for children and teenagers, and the funding for organisations like Age Concern has been decimated. Meanwhile tens of thousands are spent promoting the Open Golf in Sandwich.

“The Conservatives have paid out hundreds of thousands in fees to consultants to tell them what they want to hear, while cutting the things people actually need, such as recycling sacks.

“We used to have a recycling scheme to be proud of, but the Tories have cut the number of clear recycling sacks in half and the quality of those they now deliver is frankly pathetic.

“People are now running out and can no longer recycle.”

The full council meets to set the budget for 2011/12 on Thursday, February 17, at 7pm, again in the Guildhall.

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