Council agrees budget for coming year

Published 4 March 2019

Staffordshire Moorlands District Council has set its budget for providing essential services at £9.8m for the coming year.

A Council Tax increase of 2.9% has also been agreed - setting Band D payments at £150.54 for 2019/20 which equates to a rise of £4.24 or eight pence per week.

Council Leader, Councillor Sybil Ralphs, said: "In setting the budget we have been, as always, extremely mindful of the need to ensure we use these public funds responsibly to provide the key services that our residents have every right to expect.

"Council tax contributes around half of the Council's overall budget and we have aimed to keep any increase as low as we can whilst still delivering essential, high quality services.

"We have done a significant amount of work to make sure our services are efficient and deliver value for money. For example, our Alliance partnership with High Peak Borough Council has yielded savings of £12m over the last ten years as a result of our shared approach to staffing structures and procurement opportunities.

"We've also transformed how services are delivered and made it easier to contact us by providing more and more of our services digitally and we'll continue to keep services under review to identify further opportunities to improve efficiency and save money."

The District Council collects Council Tax on behalf of the County Council, Parish and Town Councils and Police and Fire Authorities but only spends 10% of the total.

This expenditure is used to provide services including affordable housing, waste and recycling, street cleaning, leisure centres, parks maintenance, support for local businesses, crime prevention activities, benefits services and elections.