HOUSEHOLDERS in Redditch will see their council tax rise by nearly four per cent in April after Worcestershire County Council voted through a £322million budget.
The 3.94 per cent tax hike will now mean the average band D home owner will pay £42 extra a year after the Conservative leadership at County Hall had their spending plans for 2016 approved at a full council meeting last Thursday (February 11).
The £8million raised through the rise will be used to ease the pressure on adult social care services due to the growing elderly population and to support children in care.
Council chiefs are also planning to spend £12million on improving the county’s roads while £500,000 has also been earmarked for Redditch town centre improvements, including resurfacing roads and pavements.
Councillor Simon Geraghty, Leader of Worcestershire County Council, said: “The decisions we have taken are shaped around those areas that our residents tell us are most important to them.
“The 3.94 per cent increase to the Council Tax amounts to less than £1 per week for most households and will provide essential support to Worcestershire’s most vulnerable people.”
Leader of the Labour group at County Hall, Coun Peter McDonald, said: “The Tory Government have highlighted the fact that this council has a staggering £112million of unringfenced reserves, yet it wishes to put more and more of its residents into poverty by imposing a four per cent increase.
“This means over a short period of three years an eight per cent increase has been imposed on the residents of Worcestershire.
“The reserves needed to be used now; people have had enough of austerity.
“Unfortunately the Tory controlled council is obsessed with cutbacks and piling misery onto its residents without out a care in the world.”
