Medway Council tax bills to increase as £1bn budget approved amid Unison protest over council staff pay
14:13, 21 February 2020
updated: 15:08, 21 February 2020
Taxpayers will see their council tax bills rise with the average household in Medway paying an extra £72.49 in 2020/21 – equal to a 4.18% rise.
Medway Council has agreed more than £500 million in spending on services and a further £470m on capital projects throughout the Towns for the coming year.
An average Band D property in Medway will pay £1,804.09 compared to last year's figure of £1,731.60 – up £1.39 per week.
During a heated debate about the council's forthcoming budget, leader Cllr Alan Jarrett (Con) proposed an additional £1.3m spending – with most of the money (£601,200) funding a 2% pay rise for council staff.
Employees protested ahead of the meeting after an "insulting" 1% increase had initially been proposed.
Heckles greeted Cllr Jarrett from the public gallery as he delivered his speech – when he announced the additional 1% for staff – with people calling out "shame" after councillors passed a 14% increase for their own allowances last year.
"We built this budget on an affordable and sustainable basis. We have taken into account what other councils are doing and it seems a 2% pay rise is about par," Cllr Jarrett said.
Later in the meeting Labour leader Cllr Vince Maple called out the Conservatives for "poor budget management and lack of investment in the people who keep Medway running" as well as members upping their allowances – which Labour voted against.
"Staff since 2010 have not had a pay rise which keeps pace with inflation. Until council staff are properly paid it is simple: if councillors' allowances are increased it should only be in line with council staff pay increases," Cllr Maple said.
The council has set out plans to spend £524.5m for the next year – an increase of some £7m on 2019/20 – and is expecting to bring in £200m in council tax and other income streams.
"Before austerity, we did have much more effective public services"
Increases have been agreed with spending to education rising to £56m, adult social care to £68m, children's services to £46m and regeneration delivery budgets also increasing.
But these are offset by cuts to frontline services by £2m – although there are increases to environmental services by £1.4m and highways by £800,000. Sports, leisure and tourism as well as libraries have both reduced by £400,000.
Extra spending of £165,000 will be given to the council's trading arm Medway Commercial Group.
Additional spending will be covered by more than £8.3m raised in extra council tax funded by a 2% rise in council tax – the maximum allowed without a referendum – and a further 2% ringfenced for adult social care services.
The other increases on the council tax bill comes from increased charges to fund Kent Police and Kent Fire and Rescue Service.
Cllr Jarrett said: "The biggest challenge we're facing is of course children's services.
"We will see significant funding for children's services of £6m and we're already seeing the benefits. It now needs to deliver the required improvements."
Meanwhile, the £470m capital programme includes the £170m infrastructure spending to develop the Hoo Peninsula with the council aiming to start work by the end of the year.
Other major investment the council is planning includes a £14m development of a six-storey centre on the Innovation Park Medway site at Rochester Airport.
Cllr Jarrett described the plans as "vital to shape Medway for the future" which would lead to "infrastructure and job creation".
"These are monumental times for Medway but they ain't seen nothing yet. This is a huge and complex programme.
"We really are moving at pace on a whole range of fronts."
He confirmed a new assistant director for children's services had been appointed but the council had not managed to successfully fill the vacant position for another assistant director for special education needs and disabilities (SEND) services.
"These are monumental times for Medway but they ain't seen nothing yet"
Cllr Martin Potter (Con) praised the authority for managing to keep council tax in Medway at the lowest level in Kent.
But Cllr Maple was far from convinced, saying: "According to the leader there have been no cuts to services. Before austerity, we did have much more effective public services."
As examples, he listed closures of mental health unit Therapeutic House in Gillingham in 2015, Old Vicarage children's home proposed last year, Sure Start centres across Medway, library hours cut in Gillingham and converting Deangate Ridge into "effectively a storage space and car park for Medway Norse".
Cllr Maple then spoke on the "false economy" of the proposed closure of 147 Nelson Road mental health centre in Chatham which treats some of Medway's most vulnerable patients.
He said Labour wants to see the centre set up as a Community Interest Company to keep it open.
The budget was approved by the council as Labour councillors voted to reject the proposals.
There were moments when few punches were pulled as the Tories and Labour councillors chipped away at each other on their budget policies.
Cllr Stuart Tranter (Con) was not holding back when he criticised Cllr Maple and the opposition party for not proposing amendments to the budget or suggesting what they would do differently.
"I'm very disappointed in the group opposite – looking back and criticising everything we've been trying to do.
"But I've been sitting here pen and calculator poised about the myriad of things they would like to do.
"I'm very disappointed that I won't need my pen and calculator.
"All I'm hearing is moaning from a group of people that's achieved absolutely nothing."
Earlier in the meeting Cllr Tristan Osborne (Lab) questioned the "cultural problem" with the leadership of the council.
He said: "We've had year after year of moratoriums and spending freezes. Can we afford this culture of spending freezes and departments rushing to spend their money in quarters one and two?
"We can't afford another year like we've just had."
