HAMPSHIRE residents will cough up an above inflation increase in council tax from April, with Hampshire County Council's preponderant Conservative authority surviving a Lib Dem onslaught to rubber stamp proposals pushing through a 4.5 per cent rise. Dominated by bickering and political jibes, last Thursday's annual budget meeting saw the Tory- run council pull rank to quell a rebellion over their controvesial £128m reserve fund which could have been used to reduce the increase. Angry Lib Dems accused the rulling group of plotting a cynical council tax cut in time for next year's elections after allowing services to suffer in 2008. Held at HCC's Winchester headquarters, Tories claimed no cuts to frontline services, outlining a £14.7million list of savings, amid a £640million spending plan, including a £40million "sustainable" refurbishment of Winchester's Ashburton Court. The budget for 2008/09 will see expenditure of £29million on roads and bridges, £26million on schools and £1million on residential homes and day care centres. Rival Lib Dems saw the budget as one of "cuts, cuts, cuts", lambasting the administration's £4.5million annual expenditure on corporate communications as "self-promotion." They baulked at the administration's "excessive" reserve levels, which currently stand at £128million, swiping at proposed library cuts, excessive staffing at county HQ, diminishing old people's homes and poor investment in youth services. The increase sees the bill for a band D household currently paying £999 per year to rise to £1,350 once district and parish council, police and fire authority charges are added in. Councillors endured a 50-minute diatribe from leader Ken Thornber. At one point, six Tory councillors were visibly "resting their eyes," while others wrote text messages and idly leafed through paperwork. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat 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, with a "cynical" rise in funding towards the "hinterlands of Labour support." "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," he said. "Hampshire has lost tens of millions of pounds to those areas over the years and government has expected our council tax payers to pick up the bill. "Our grant is £112 per head, while Durham's is £325," he added. Lib Dem leader Adrian Collett proposed an amended budget, taking £4.7million 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. "Pretending there are no cuts is not only dishonest, it's incompetent too," he said. Accusing Mr Thornber of "weasel words," he blasted Tory plans to cut council tax in 2009. "If we can afford to bring down council tax next year, we can afford to do it now. "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. "On a recent government grant settlement act, 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 county headquarters. 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!", she added, before the council voted to ratify the 4.5 per cent rise.
