COUNCIL tax is set to rise by 1.99 per cent in Darlington for a second year running but further cuts to services and jobs have been avoided for now, a budget report has revealed.

Darlington Borough Council’s chief executive Ada Burns said she understood the frustration people feel when council tax goes up but that the rising cost of social care was putting the squeeze on all finances.

No cuts to services or job losses are proposed in the council’s 2015-16 draft budget, but the report comes with a warning that ‘significant’ savings will need to be found next autumn once the dust settles after the General Election in May.

The authority has lost £22m from its government grant since 2010 – a 41 per cent reduction – and expects the grant to be reduced further over the next decade, regardless of which party comes to power.

The authority is six months into a two year budget strategy that looks to make further savings of £13.8m from its revenue account by reconfiguring services rather than cutting them where possible.

The draft budget announced today is the second year of that process, with £3.6m of savings reported to have been realised so far.

That has meant the introduction of alternate weekly waste collections and cuts to StreetScene services, leading to some residents to question why they should pay more for less.

Ms Burns said: “I absolutely understand how frustrated and cross people will feel when they hear that council tax is going up again.

“It makes our councillors frustrated and cross that they can’t fix all the potholes and the problems that they want to.

“But the fact remains that as a council we have 1,300 legal duties. Already more than 60 per cent of our revenue budget is going on social care for adults and children.

“More and more of our revenue will go to social care in the future and that puts a bigger squeeze on things like highways, parks and leisure centres.

“I wish it was different but that’s how it is.”

In its capital budget, the authority has proposed to spend £500,000 on repairs and refurbishment of the town’s indoor market and to earmark an additional £75,000 to the £2m previously allocated to improve the Dolphin Centre.

The authority has also put aside £486,000 to continue crisis support funding for one year, after being told that the government’s Local Welfare Provision Grant would be cut.

The council’s Labour leader Bill Dixon said the proposed budget was the culmination of a long-term plan.

He said: “We’ve stuck to what we said we would do and for that reason we don’t have the critical issues that some authorities are facing this year. It demonstrates that we have kept our eye on what is an incredibly difficult budget.

“It has not been easy to deliver, we’ve lost staff and services. We are managing a decline as best we can.

“Despite all that we’ve been able to put £500,000 aside for the indoor market – which was not the £2m or £3m that we would have liked but is all we can afford – and £400,000 to protect crisis support which helps the most vulnerable.”

Heather Scott, leader of the Conservative group, said the Tories were unhappy to see a 1.99 per cent council tax increase and would consider challenging the budget.

She added: “The problem this Labour-controlled authority has is its consistent refusal to take up the government’s offer of a nil increase council tax.

“We will be looking more closely at the budget proposals and may come up with alternatives.

“This authority has benefitted a lot from capital monies that the Coalition Government has put into the area –if it were not for that the budget situation would be much worse.”  

The draft budget will be subject to public consultation in the coming weeks before a final vote early next year.

Members of the council’s cabinet will discuss the proposals at its meeting on Tuesday, December 2 at 5pm.