Mid Devon District Council council tax freeze (From Mid Devon Star)

Mid Devon District Council council tax freeze

7:00pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in News

MID Devon District Council has frozen its share of council tax for the third year running and refrained from making cuts to frontline services.

The decision was taken despite the authority suffering a £1.8million cut in its Government funding over the past three years, with further reductions scheduled for 2014/15.

It means the average Band D household will pay the council £182.15 – the same as thisyear – with the total average rising by £11.06 from £1,565.76 to £1,576.82, due to increases in the precepts of Devon and Cornwall Police, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue and some parish councils.

Fire chiefs raised their share by 1.99% after being handed the third steepest Government grant reduction of any service in the country, while similar cuts forced the police precept to climb by 2%.

The district council’s cabinet member for finance, Cllr Neal Davey, said: “This is great news for the people of Mid Devon. I am proud that we have, for the third year running, frozen council tax while maintaining our key frontline services at existing levels.

“The council’s financial strength has been greatly improved over recent years.

“We have been making efficiency savings through steady reductions from natural turnover and through more flexible working and building reserves.

“We are therefore in a much better position than many other councils to deal with the currentfinancial constraints.

“Our strategy for the future is to continue achieving more efficiency savings but we know that 2014/15 will be particularly tight.”