This week Medway Council published its budget proposals, and despite the current economic downturn it represents good news all round. Top of the list is the fact that Medway retains the cheapest council tax in the whole of Kent — by an average of some £130.00 a year.
That is no mean achievement when we consider that under the government settlement we have lost £4.8 million in the so-called damping. Our increase in council tax will yield £4.4 million — so we are going backwards.
Despite that all our vital services remain intact. So how has that been achieved?
There has been some limited use of reserves — about £500,000 — and some windfalls such as VAT recovery. But in the main we have worked hard to squeeze more efficiencies out of Medway Council.
Outdated ways of doing things — such as ploughing money endlessly into areas without seeing any improvement in outcomes — have been scrapped long ago. Instead in Medway we focus on the delivery of services.
Now we start from a zero-based approach. We ask ourselves what do we need to provide for our residents, and then challenge how we can do that in the most cost-effective and efficient way. It is how we can get more for less.
Our opposition may say that any budget reduction is a cut. But people only need look at the service delivery end to be able to nail that one.
When the dust settles on the budget council meeting on 26th February Medway residents will see that their services are intact, that their council tax remains the lowest for miles around, and that their fees and charges are lower than almost anywhere.
Of course none of us like to pay out more — particular when money is so tight — and we would like to have extra cash to splash. That is why my colleagues and I have recently been to Westminster to lobby Parliamentary colleagues for a fairer deal for Medway.
This is a campaign that we will continue with, until we get what is rightfully ours in terms of government grant. When a fairer deal eventually arrives we can all benefit by being able to spend more on services, and by maintaining that low rate of council tax