Bradford councillors vote to raise Council Tax (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
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Councillors in Bradford vote for Council Tax rise
6:57pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in News
By Jo Winrow, City Hall Reporter
Bradford councillors have voted to raise Council Tax by 1.99 per cent from April after a third successive year of multi-million pound cuts across all departments was agreed.
The ruling Labour group's budget plans were passed with the support of the Green party at the end of a two hour special meeting at City Hall tonight.
The agreed budget will leave the Council with cuts to services for 2013/14 of £27m and more jobs losses at the authority, which are expected to total about 86.
Labour came under fire from the Conservatives for pushing through a rise in Council Tax just below the Government-set threshold that would have triggered a referendum.
However Council leader, Labour’s Councillor David Green said the offer of a grant worth one per cent to freeze the tax was not a “helping hand” amid “dramatic attacks on services” from the Government, but merely “at best a finger to the people of the district”.
