What your Council has been up to

By Alex Perkins, Liberal Democrat Canterbury City Council Leader

 

Thanks to the government giving out a pre-election “bung” in the form of a larger than usual increase in the Government's Revenue Support Grant, it looks as though the Council will be able to do much of what we have planned and still keep the increase in council tax low. Tory-run KCC have set a local tax increase of 3.9%, which means they have increased your local tax bill by a staggering £45. Your Liberal Democrat-led City Council will be asking Band D households for something like an extra 11 pence per week.

LibDem-led Canterbury City Council was recently judged by the Audit Commission to be the 5th best performing district council in the country. Not bad, as the previous best was 187th out of 214, only 5 years ago.  That’s what you get when you have Liberal Democrat councillors setting the pace for change!

Even better news! Grants to voluntary organisations will once more be maintained at a level which is easily the highest in Kent. Most will get as much as last year and we have found enough money to ensure that some new projects will be supported.

I chair Canterbury's licensing policy committee and our draft policy is being cited as "good practice" nationwide. Canterbury's Commercial Health Manager has been widely involved with policy-making at the Ministry and this is typical of the lead we are taking nationally.

The pre-Christmas Euro-fair was once again a great success. It attracted national attention and brought shoppers to Canterbury from a wide area.

Thanks to Conservative-run Kent County Council our roads and pavements are still a mess. Canterbury has struck the best deal possible over the unilateral ending, by the Tories at County Hall, of the Highways Partnership between the County and District Councils. We will never give up the fight to make them spend your money fixing the roads locally!