A new telephone service to deal with the full range of Revenues and Benefits enquiries (e.g. council tax, housing benefit, business rates) goes live on Friday 14 March. It will be available 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The number will be

0845 9400 820

The new service will be quicker (no waiting- it is supposed to respond in less than three rings).

Leaflets on it will be available in all city info units in the near future; a copy of the Leaflet can be seen here.

After what appears much behind-the-scenes negotiation, the Police Authority set its council tax rate yesterday evening.

It came in at £142.47 for a Band D property, a rise of 4.97%.

this means that the total Band D council tax for people in Neville’s Cross will be £1,436.09, a rise of just under 3% from last year.

The County and City Councils both held their budget meetings yesterday.

In the morning at County Hall, the controlling Labour group pushed through a 2.9% increase. As Leader of the Lib Dem opposition I moved an amendment to reduce the increase to 1.9%, but we naturally lost the vote.

The County seems awash with cash this year. It had a much larger than expected increase in Government grant (over 7% up) and also failed to spend the money it raised last year (otherwise known as savings). Our lower proposal was eminently affordable without any cuts in services.

On the other hand the Lib Dem controlled City Council , later the same day, voted for a 1.9% increase in spite of having a miserly increase in Government grant (just over 1% up). When I look back to the parlous state of the City finances that we inherited from the previous Labour administration in 2003, we have done a really good job to get things so well under control (well I would say that I suppose…)

So the headline Band D rate for the County will be £1,024.38 next year, and for the City £186.62.

The Fire Authority met last week and have agreed a rate of £82.62 (a 2.9% increase).

The Police authority also met last week but failed to agreed a rate. The situation is peculiar since it is necessary both for a majority of the members to vote for it and a majority of the Councillor members. It seems that the overall majority wanted one thing but the Labour Councillors (excluding the member from Darlington) wanted something else and blocked will of the majority.

They meet again tonight (Wednesday) - more fun and games in the Labour Group at County Hall no doubt.

… and the Lib Dem Group at County Hall are trying to persuade the ruling Labour Group to keep the council tax rise down as much as possible.

This morning, the County Council cabinet agreed a recommendation of a 2.9% increase to be meade to a meeting of the full council on 26 February.

We are convinced that there is scope to do better than this as council has underspent its 2007-8 budget and has had a much bigger than expected government grant.

Government nationally is talking about wage rises being kept to around 2% (or 1.9% if you are a policeman) and we shall be proposing a rate much closer to that come budget making day.

A meeting of the County Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard today that the Council is in a much easier financial position than it had thought 2 months ago.

In fact things look so good that a number of planned service cuts that were highlighted in the so-called “Have Your Say” public consultation before Christmas have been reversed, and almost £6M that was to be taken from reserves to keep the council tax down is no longer needed. On top of that, the council looks to be heading for a considerable underspend this financial year, the number of properties that make up the council tax “base” has increased so that each pound of the Band D tax rate raises more cash for the council, and higher interest rates have increased interest earned on balances more than expected.

In the 22+ years I have been on the council, I have never seen the finances so awash with cash.

The government has still to confirm its grant settlement to the council, but if things turn out like I suspect then I and the Lib Dem Group will be pressing for a very low council tax increase this year.

At this morning’s meeting, an increase of 2.9% was being talked about, but even with the added costs of the forthcoming election and the doubling of the number of councillors after 1 May, there must surely be scope to do bette than that.