No increase in council tax for Stratford District

Stratford-on-Avon District Councillors have set the district element of the council tax in the Stratford-on-Avon District at a full meeting of the Council on Monday 24 February, with no increase in the District's share of the council tax for another year. 

The average Band D figure for Stratford-on-Avon District Council households for the 2014/15 financial year remains the same at £128.05 and a net reduction over the last four years.

This means that all the services provided by the District Council are only costing £2.46 per week for a Band D household for a wide range of services including recycling and waste collection, planning, street sweeping, housing, housing benefits, leisure services and children's play areas. 

The council tax from Stratford-on-Avon District Council for residents for each of the valuation bands is:

A    £85.37                     

B    £99.59              

C    £113.82                                            

D    £128.05                   

E    £156.51                   

F    £184.96

G    £213.42               

H    £256.10

Cllr Chris Saint, Leader of the Council says: “We are delighted to be in a position to freeze council tax, despite receiving 11.6% (£627,000) less core government grant on top of the 31.6% (£2,003,518) reduction over the previous three years. 

We continually strive to provide services at a reasonable cost and work hard for residents to reduce our costs, in line with the national programme to reduce public sector expenditure. We don't underestimate the challenges in future years, but residents can be assured we will continue to manage services in a financially prudent way. 

The District Council has a strong track record of delivering savings, year on year whist maintaining key services.  We are making good progress on joint working with Cherwell and South Northants Councils and have budgeted for further savings of £200,000.  Additionally we plan to recruit an additional Neighbourhood Planning officer, funded by CLG grants; recruit temporary development management staff, funded by application fees and following recent consultation results will take at look at how the CCTV service is funded. 

Above all, this budget protects important expenditure and valued services and looks critically at how we manage the future, preparing ourselves for some difficult choices ahead, but maintaining a sustainable position.  It is robust and contains modest but sustainable changes."