At a meeting of the District Council’s Cabinet on 2nd February, members agreed to propose that St Albans City and District Council’s council tax for 2010/11 be decreased by 0.4% to ensure nobody has to pay more than last year.

Because of the way Council Tax is calculated across the District, overall this would mean that those residents living in Parish areas will see a reduction in their rate of council tax and for those residents in the unparished City wards, council tax will, in effect, be frozen – a 0% increase. The figures will be proposed to the meeting of full Council on 24th February.

Cllr Robert Donald, Leader of the Council said: “When we froze Council Tax last year, I thought this would help residents through the worst of the recession. However, all the signs are that the coming year could be even tougher financially than 2009. Many people in the District have been affected by the recession already. We want to do what we can to help local residents through the difficult year ahead. In view of this, we have decided not to propose an increase in the District Council’s council tax for a second year running. We are, indeed, proposing a 0.4% decrease overall which will have the effect of a 0% rate, or even lower, for all. This is unprecedented in my time on the District Council.

“Economists remain unsure about inflation in the coming year as to whether it is going to rise further or fall again. There is also a strong likelihood that whatever happens with inflation, national taxation in some shape or form will increase during the coming year, public expenditure will be cut by any government and salary increases will, at best, rise by no more than 1% and in many cases will be frozen or reduced. So it is vital the Council tries to help residents through this difficult period, including those with local businesses.

“Against this national recession, difficult decisions on priorities have had to be made. We have had to look hard at how we can maintain our core services more efficiently to achieve high standards at lower cost. We have had to be extremely careful to target any special one-off funding received on the most important projects.

“The budget this year has been produced in financially difficult circumstances. External government funding for 2010-11 was confirmed at a below inflation increase of 0.5%, and the situation is expected to get worse in the coming years. Despite this, we are ensuring the Council’s priorities will be met.”

The main features of the proposed 2010/11 budget are:

– Savings of £1.3m

– £3.9m for the new Westminster Lodge leisure developments

– £300,000 contingency fund for legal action to protect the Green Belt

– £20k to improve the District’s streetscene

– Allocated funds for the Malting Arts Theatre and cinema development

– Funding for a new District in Bloom pilot project

– Substantial capital funding for green travel, carbon footprint and congestion reduction initiatives, and support for Network St Albans bus transport partnership.

– Verulamium Park Heritage Project

– Further development of business process reengineering

– A balanced Housing Improvement Programme