Newark and Sherwood District Council agree to raise council tax by 1.94%
A council has agreed to a smaller increase in council tax for the coming financial year.
On Thursday night, Newark and Sherwood District Council discussed its draft 2024/25 revenue budget, with a proposal to raise council tax by the maximum allowable increase of 2.99% — in line with inflation.
However, following a successful budget amendment from the leader of the opposition Jack Kellas, this increase has been lowered to 1.94%.
When introducing the amendment, Mr Kellas said the increase was much more conservative, was in keeping with increases from previous years, and ultimately would save residents money on their council tax.
He said: “We could be opportunists and ask for 0%, but we’re not because we’re sensible, and we’re trying to restore us back to where we were.”
The decision to adopt the lower increase of 1.94% will mean the council will take in £83,679 less from council tax revenue in 2025/26 than if they had adopted the 2.99% increase.
Despite this, council leader Paul Peacock agreed with Mr Kellas’ arguments for a smaller increase and supported the proposal which was passed by majority of cross-party members.
Mr Peacock said: “The reduction to a 1.94% increase is absolutely reasonable and for one reason only — that is because local government reorganisation will have an affect on our medium term financial plan.”
He added that the council would still be in a “very good financial position” due to the amount that could be raised for reserves by the year 2028/29.
It is the first time in over a decade that a budget amendment has been successful.
Other parts of the amendment were not supported, including a request to reallocate £45,000 from the council’s Motion for the Ocean scheme.
It was proposed that £39,000 be split between ward members to be used at their discretion within the community, and £6,000 for tree planting across the district.
This aspect led to extensive debate within the council chamber, with arguments for and against the Motion for the Ocean’s importance in highlighting environmental issues and pollution of waterways, and went into discussions on flooding and the environment generally.
Emma Oldham — who introduced Motion for the Ocean during her time as portfolio holder for biodiversity and environmental services — said the £45,000 equated to just 0.002% of the total budget, and was “good value for money” as it was an important part of the council’s own commitment to education surrounding the environment.
She added that arguing over the amount was trivial when compared to the total size of the budget.
Other councillors, including Sylvia Michael rose to express their frustration that the topic had distracted from the point of the debate — which was to set the council’s revenue budget for 2024/25.
Ms Michael said: “If I was sat at home at the moment, watching on YouTube, I would be thinking that I missed the budget and tax setting, because Motion for the Ocean is all we seem to have heard about tonight.
“We’re supposed to be discussing the amendment to set council tax at 1.94% instead of 2.99%, surely that’s important?
“I thought I’d come to the wrong meeting.”
Johno Lee did not support the budget amendment, arguing that the leading Labour group would only allow it in order to pass the budget without opposition.
