Dorset County has in the past received
a poor grant from Government. Following
an announcement by Government to review
the way this grant is calculated, Jim Knight,
together with the local authorities in Dorset,
campaigned for a better deal.
The previous ‘formula’ for calculating
how much each local authority received did
not take into account the particular pressures
facing the South Dorset region, such as
‘pockets of deprivation’ and increasing
house prices set against moderate wages.
The Government opened up a period of consultation
on this issue, which ended in September
2002. Throughout the consultation period
Jim made numerous representations through
participating in debates, asking questions
in the House of Commons and presenting a
petition to Parliament signed by many local
people. Following the announcement of provisional
figures, he led a delegation of local representatives
to meet in private with the Local Government
Minister and the Secretary of State for
Education, Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP. A final
vote was taken in Parliament in January
2003.
Every local authority in England will gain
an increase in their budget and broadly
speaking the Government has directed more
funding to local Government over the past
few years.
The results for Dorset local authorities
were as follows -
Dorset County Council (3.9% increase),
Purbeck District Council (3% increase),
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council (12.5%
increase), West Dorset District Council
(5.8% increase).
"I was delighted with the result for
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, who
received the ceiling of 12.5%. However,
I was disappointed for the County Council
and the Police Authority, where although
gaining an above inflation rise, both have
increased costs which will exceed the 3.9%
settlement."
Parliament took a final vote on this issue
in January. Because of the excellent outcome
for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council,
Jim could not vote against the settlement.
However, due to his disappointment with
the result for the other authorities, he
chose to abstain.
Now he is channelling efforts to get a
better settlement for next year, focusing
on the specific problems facing the region,
as mentioned above. He stresses the importance
of now getting evidence and support from
local people to convince Government why
the extra funding is needed.
Council Tax
Jim says: "Many local people
are rightly concerned about the high level
of council tax. For this year, Weymouth
and Portland Borough Council has taken the
decision to increase council tax by 53%
for the coming financial year. The decision
was agreed by the Independent, Liberal Democrat
and Labour Groups. The council, despite
receiving a good settlement from Government
(12.5% increase), is still in financial
difficulty and has to make very tough decisions.
Because the council is a hung council,
they have suffered from a lack in leadership
in the past. This has meant that such tough
decisions were not taken earlier. I am therefore
pleased that the Independent, Liberal Democrat
and Labour Groups came together to agree
on this increase – in order to get
to grips with the financial situation for
the future.
Whilst I realise that this year’s
increase is a giant leap, locals in Weymouth
and Portland still pay less than in neighbouring
Dorchester.
The Council received advice from the Audit
Commission and following this were able
to make a £1 million saving, without
which the bill to the local taxpayer may
have been even higher.
For the future it is vital that local authorities
find ways of reducing costs, for example,
if they can be persuaded to have the imagination
to manage services together across authorities
they can also save fixed cost. Do we need
all these legal departments, personnel sections,
IT departments etc.? Would it not be better
for the authorities to contract such services
to just one of them for each service and
make consequent savings with increases in
expertise?
Although council taxpayers in Weymouth
and Portland will still pay less than residents
in Dorchester, I remain very concerned at
the level of council tax. Pensioners in
particular struggle to pay these increases
and I am currently investigating how we
can give more help to such groups."
