On Tuesday the County Council narrowly voted to keep basic council tax the same, but add a 2% social care levy earmarked for social care only. Other needed funding will be paid for out of the reserves.

As I mentioned on my blog, the County council faces a huge budgetary challenge over the next few years – somehow the council has to reduce its costs by around 25%, largely due to central government withdrawing funding support. This has lead to ongoing services being funded out of the (finite) reserves, and this decision will only continue the trend. Paying for services out of the reserves severely hampers the council if extra funds were needed at short notice, and, if this continues, there will eventually be no reserves left.

This is clearly not sustainable, but the Conservatives seem determined to not allow the council to raise tax to try and fill the gap left by central government funding cuts. This means further cuts in services that a lot of the county’s most vulnerable people currently depend on.

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