SINCE 2010/11, the Forest of Dean District Council’s core funding from the Government has been cut from £6.8 million to £2.4 million – a reduction of £4.4 million or 65 per cent.

New funding streams to compensate for this loss are the New Homes Bonus and the return of business rates to local government.

Both these funding streams are increasingly uncertain.

New Homes Bonus is dependent on the number of new homes built – currently running at alarmingly low levels – and there is a significant number of outstanding business rates appeals.

In some recognition of the problems faced by smaller district councils like ours, the government has permitted them to raise their council tax by two per cent or £5 on a D band property, whichever is the greater.

For the Forest of Dean, a two per cent D band rise equates to £3.31 per annum.

The Conservative-led council has voted for the lower of these two figures and to balance the budget, even giving an optimistic forecast of income, will require raiding the future deficits earmarked reserve to the sum of £322,200 or very nearly 40 per cent of its total value. 

Given the parlous state of the council’s finances, the Labour Group proposed an increase in council tax of £5 for a cost per D band household, equating to an extra £1.69 per year, less than the cost of a coffee shop latte.

This would not have transformed our position, but would have raised an extra £47,580 in the coming financial year.

The Tory ideologues and their Independent clones voted for the lower figure.

Meanwhile, the number of council employees will continue to fall, services will become harder to access, and spending power will be removed from our communities.

I doubt there is a single trader in Coleford who would not wish for the return of their customers who once worked at our council offices in the town.

– Cllr Bruce Hogan, Forest of Dean District Council (Lab), Lydbrook and Ruardean.