HAMPSHIRE residents will cough up an above inflation 4.5 per cent increase in council tax from April. With Hampshire County Council's Conservative authority surviving a Lib Dem onslaught to rubber stamp proposals at last Thursday's annual budget meeting. Held at the county council's Winchester headquarters, Tories claimed no cuts to frontline services, outlining a £14.7 million list of savings, amidst a £640 million spending plan. The budget for 2008/09 will see expenditure of £29 million on roads and bridges, £26 million on schools and £1 million on the county's residential homes and day care centres. Rival Lib Dems saw the budget as one of "cuts, cuts, cuts", lambasting the administration's £4.5 million annual expenditure on corporate communications as "self-promotion". They baulked at the administration's "excessive" reserve levels, which currently stand at £128 million, swiping at proposed library cuts, excessive staffing at HCC, diminishing old people's homes and poor investment in youth services. The increase sees a band D house paying £999 per year, with the bill set to rise to approximately £1,350 with district and parish councils, police and fire. Councillors endured a 50 minute diatribe from HCC leader Ken Thornber; at one point, six sleepy Tory councillors were visibly 'resting their eyes', while others wrote text messages and idly leafed through paperwork. Meanwhile, Lib Dem members passed notes to one another, jeering and giggling before regular congregations around the water cooler. Mr Thornber highlighted the north-south divide as the reason for the rise, launching a broadside on the Labour government for regional inequalities. "Had we received the average of Durham, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, at eight per cent, then I could have reduced our increase to 2.5 per cent. "Our grant is £112 per head, while Durham's is £325," he added. Lib Dem leader Adrian Collett proposed an amended budget, taking £4.7 million from reserve funds to lower council taxes. Proposing a slash to money spent on corporate communications, to boost bus services, libraries, and youth and social workers, Lib Dems saw their budget thrown out by Tories. Mr Collett said: "I note that the last time there was a proposed 3.5 per cent council tax cut it was in 2005 – coincidentally they are both council election years!" "I will fight for better funding for Hampshire, which is more than can be said for Hampshire's Tory MP's. I find it breathtaking that not a single one of them could be bothered to turn up. "Where were Gerald Howarth, James Arbuthnot, Michael Mates, David Willetts, Mark Hoban, George Young, Maria Miller, Desmond Swayne and Julian Lewis when we needed them?" Before the meeting, members of the pressure group IsItFair lobbied members outside HCC headquarters. IsItFair founder Christine Melsom made a representation to the council, remarking: "It's a vile tax, there's no other word for it. We all know the system is not fit for purpose, it has more holes than Swiss cheese!"
