Newcastle City Council proposes council tax and parking charges hike

Council tax in Newcastle is set to rise and city centre parking charges could be upped in a bid to save £63m over the next three years.

The city council proposals include a 2.99% council tax rise, cutting the social services budget by £6.5m, and a 20p-per-hour hike in parking charges.

The cuts will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on 21 November ahead of a seven-week public consultation.

The council said it would endeavour to protect frontline services.

The announcement comes ahead of a new squeeze on public spending expected to be confirmed in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement next week, with Newcastle City Council having already had to find savings totalling £347m since 2010.

The authority promised to remodel its services, for which there is increasing demand, while "keeping residents safe from harm" and said it had prioritised freezing its charges and the cost of school meals.

Nick Kemp, the council's Labour leader, said:  "The increasing financial pressure on councils everywhere means that inevitably, our budgets cannot stretch as far as we would wish.

"We have taken every step to mitigate the impact of government cuts on our residents, and we are absolutely focused on supporting people and businesses in Newcastle to get through the cost-of-living crisis."

A council tax increase of 2.99% would mean a rise of between £36.79 and £110.37 a year depending on a households' council tax banding.

The authority also wants to cut £3.24m from adult social care services by "remodelling care assessments but maintaining adequate support for those who need it" the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

It is also proposing to end its Bikeability cycling training in schools.

The city's Liberal Democrat opposition said the end of the cycling scheme was "counterintuitive" given the council's ambitions to reduce air pollution.

Of the reduction in social services budgets, Lib Dem leader Councillor Nick Cott said: "I understand there is a plan to spend a bit more on preventative measures which could lead to people not needing to use social care services. 

"This is something I absolutely welcome, but I think the targets are potentially very hard to attain and based on assumptions about service demand which is very hard to predict."

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