STIRLING SETS SECOND HIGHEST COUNCIL TAX IN SCOTLAND!

With just three out of the 32 Scottish local authorities still to set their budget for 2007/08, householders in Stirling district look set to be charged the second highest Council Tax in the country this year.

An Alternative Budget proposed by Conservatives at yesterday's meeting would have meant no increase in Council Tax this year - the fourth year in a row that local Tories put forward plans involving no increase in tax.

With the rise in government grant, coupled with an end to Labour profligacy, the Tory proposals would also have meant more funding for roads, grass cutting, street sweeping, flood prevention, community halls, wardens, and gritting.

Labour councillors used their majority to vote down the Tory proposals, instead imposing a 1.8 per cent increase in council tax.

Commenting afterwards Tory finance spokesman Cllr Paul Nelson said:
"The tax increase levied by Labour for the coming year is more modest than we have seen before, thanks partly to Tory pressure and partly to the increase in government grant. But few will be fooled by it. Labour's track record in Stirling suggests that should they be re-elected in May they will simply revert back to their high tax agenda once again.

"Stirling has gone from having the eighteenth highest to fifth highest council tax over the past decade. That dismal record is set to deteriorate yet further, with local householders facing the second highest tax in the country over the coming year.

"It's not always a lack of money that is the problem, but the priorities pursued by the current Administration that are wrong.
Residents are paying a lot more in tax, but feel they are getting less in return."

"The traditional Labour orthodoxy that higher council taxes lead to improved services has been turned on its head by this Administration.
Even their own Residents Survey shows public satisfaction with council services has declined."

"Our alternative proposals would have brought tax relief to local people on fixed or modest incomes, such as pensioners and those with young families, for whom the council tax has rapidly become a sizeable part of the household budget.

"The fact is that the current Administration doesn't have a revenue problem - it has a spending problem. That's why they've lifted Stirling into the 'top tax league', way above councils of a similar size or profile. They claim they can't afford not to increase the council tax, but the truth is it's Labour councillors we can't afford!"