| Topic: | Re:Re:Proposed closure of Wandsworth Museum | |
| Posted by: | Tony Belton | |
| Date/Time: | 26/01/07 16:35:00 |
| Malcolm Grimston really should stop spreading abuse and dare I say fabrications. The Council Tax has been frozen for the last 3 years AND has risen by an average of nearly 15% over the last 4 years. Both are true, incredibly, because his party raised it by 57.3% in one go immediately after the 2002 Council Election, having reduced it by 25% immediately before that election. Since then it has been frozen. However, as many have pointed out the current situation is the problem - not either his or indeed my interpretation of history. But actually it is not much of a problem at all! The Council Agenda for 31st January, page xxxiii, has a table showing that to deliver the current programme the Council needs to raise the Council Tax to £383. BUT, and it is rather an important but, this table does not yet take into account the latest Council Tax Collection Fund surplus. When one asks the Director of Finance what that is estimated to be the answer is £1 million, which brings down the Council Tax requirement to £375. Peculiarly enough a Council Tax of £375 represents a 5% increase, which is what the Government allows. Incidentally another 5% increase in each of the following two years would give a Council Tax of £394 in 2008/9 and of £413 in 2009/10, enough to cover the totality of inflation and of current Council requirements. (Here I am allowing that the Collection Fund Surplus in the next two years is much the same as its historical trend) This would ensure the future of the Museum for the next three years at least and of Battersea Arts Centre. What it would not do, however, would be to allow Cllr Grimston and his colleagues to freeze Council Tax. There is the rub! |