AN EXTRA £5.24 on council tax bills for Band D properties in Worcester has been rubber-stamped by council chiefs as part of an £10.2million budget for the city in the next 12 months.
Members of Worcester City Council approved the rise at a meeting last Tuesday which also saw a freeze on car parking charges in all of the council’s car parks and £15,000 earmarked to tackle problems of gulls in the city centre.
Councillors gave the green light to £500,000 towards the development of a City Centre Master Plan, a new vision for the heart of Worcester and the same amount to develop a new pedestrian bridge in the north of the city.
A major cash injection of £500,000 was approved to boost house building in Worcester while a seperate £500,000 will be earmarked to provide more housing for vulnerable tenants.
Worcester’s Riverside area will benefit from a further £300,000 while £100,000 has been set aside to create a new pedestrian and cycle path running from Diglis to Carrington Bridge in a bid to ease some of the congestion in the area.
A total of £100,000 will be spent to enforce housing standards in the private rented housing sector over the next two years while the same amount will be spent on promotion of healthy activities to keep city residents active.
In a bid to reduce plastic use across Worcester, £15,000 will be spent on drinking fountations in the city centre to encourage people to ditch plastic bottles.
Coun Adrian Gregson, leader of the city council, said: “This budget will bring important progress in our City Plan ambition to build a successful future for Worcester on its 2,000 years of history. The City Centre Master Plan is a particularly significant project, as it will create an exciting vision for developing and improving the very heart of our city.”
Conservative leader Coun Marc Bayliss had proposed a freeze on Council Tax for the year ahead but his amendment was defeated with both the Labour party and the Greens voting to reject the Tory proposal.
“This is an ambitious budget that will bring our vision for a new pedestrian bridge for the city closer to reality, as well as supporting exciting initiatives in housing, our environment and our transportation links. It is a budget for a prosperous, strong and healthy city,” he said.
A one-off £150,000 investment in community safety projects – including investment in CCTV and youth support – has also been approved as part of the budget, alongside an ongoing annual £50,000 boost to this important work.
An extra £88,000 has been set aside to support the council’s work to tackle homelessness, in line with the new Homelessness Prevention Act. £80,000 will be used to ensure the continuation of the Discretionary Welfare Assistance Scheme which provides assistance in the form of goods or vouchers to help individuals or families facing exceptionally difficult circumstances or an emergency.
The 2018/19 budget includes a contribution of £1.609m from the Government’s New Homes Bonus scheme, an award made in recognition of the number of new houses delivered in the city.
The remainder will go towards maintaining excellent standards in the council’s main services, including waste and recycling, grounds maintenance, parks, street cleaning, planning, housing, economic development and more.
