Parties clash as council tax goes up in Pendle

Labour councillors reacted with disappointment at the decision by the Tory administration to impose the maximum council tax rise of 2.99%, while the Tories accused their opposition of forcing through their high-spending budget.

Over 60% of homes in Pendle are in Band A, so Pendle Borough Council’s increase in council tax is £5.61 for the year – which is 10.7p per week. Band D properties will see an increase from £281.50 to £289.92 – an increase of just £8.42 over the next year.

The Tory council leader, Coun. Nadeem Ahmed, also accused the borough’s Labour Mayor, Coun. Yasser Iqbal, of not remaining “apolitical” in the votes.

He said: “The mayoralty in Pendle is meant to be ceremonial. However, it was once again deployed to hand an extra vote to the Labour party, meaning that with one of our councillors absent through illness, our fiscally responsible budget was defeated and control of the Development Management Committee was handed to one of Coun. Iqbal’s colleagues.

"We saw this behaviour throughout last summer during the terminal illness of our colleague, the late Coun. Carlo Lionti, when the opposition successfully stopped many of the elements of our Transformation Programme, by winding back the clock to the re-adoption of laborious and expensive methods of decision-making while also loading officers with onerous, non-core projects via the exploitation of council motions.

‘Slow-motion car crash’ – Conservatives

"It’s a slow-motion car crash to insolvency, as Labour and the Lib Dems seem determined to burn through the council’s ever diminishing reserves.”

Pendle Council’s Director of Resources Richard Gibson had warned in his report that it was important to note the rate at which reserves were being used to support the General Fund Revenue Budget was not sustainable over the medium term without the need to align expenditure more closely with ongoing resources.

He added: “If action is not taken to balance the revenue position, it is inevitable that general reserves will run out…”

‘Punishing local people’

Labour group leader Coun. Asjad Mahmood responded by saying: “It is the case Pendle Tories have failed to secure no extra funding to provide frontline services from their government and instead are punishing local people for their lack of commitment to residents.

“It’s easy to provide graphs but people can not be taken as fools and believe the Tory failure.”