At last night’s Sefton Council meeting, Conservatives voted against Labour’s 4.99% increase in Council Tax.
Commenting, Conservative Group Leader, Mike Prendergast said,
“We cannot support a tax increase of 4.99% when Labour councillors have just awarded themselves a more than 6% pay rise, have ruined Children’s Social Services in Sefton and continue to engage in speculative commercial ventures that risk taxpayer money.
Since Labour have run Sefton Council, Council Tax has gone up by around 43%, those in Band D properties will pay almost £2,000 per year in Council Tax, a near £100 increase on the previous year.
At the same time as putting up your Council Tax, Labour increased their own allowances, paying themselves more.
There were surpluses available in the budget from Council Tax and Business Rates but because Labour had to raid reserves last year to pay for their mismanagement of other areas like Children’s Social Services, which they allowed to deteriorate in the first place, those reserves now need to be replenished, ready to fix the next Labour disaster.
If not for the terrible choices made by Labour over the last decade or more, those surplus funds could have helped with a Council Tax freeze that would have helped households across Sefton.
Labour’s poor management of Sefton is costing residents dearly and at the local elections in May I hope people across Sefton remember that it’s Labour who’ve been in charge here and it’s time we had a change, ultimately local elections are about local issues.
The cost of Labour in Sefton is too high.”
