Carlisle City Council set 2016/17 budget

Cllr Colin Glover says the council faced some tough decisions Credit: ITV Border

Carlisle City Council set its budget for 2016/2017 last night at a Special Full Council meeting.

The Council needs to make savings of £3,475,000 between 2016/17 and 2018/19. They have achieved £7million in savings since 2010/11.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Colin Glover, said they had to makes some tough decisions when setting the budget.

Cllr Glover proposed the Executive’s budget, which was seconded by Councillor Les Tickner, Portfolio holder for Finance, Governance and Resources.

As part of the 2016/17 budget, the following has been agreed:

  • Freezing car parking charges for the fifth year running. Plus, some car park charges have reduced including a 50% decrease for an all day charge in Town Dyke Orchard from £10 to £5

  • Capital funding for essential council assets such as a new refuse fleet to improve service delivery

  • Maintaining a commitment to invest in new leisure facilities

  • Maintaining full Council Tax Reduction Scheme support to low income households

  • Modernising the council’s ICT infrastructure to enable longer term savings to be made

  • Significant investment in development of Durranhill Industrial Estate in partnership with the Local Enterprise Partnership

  • Small Community Projects - each City Councillor will receive £1,000 to spend on local community projects in their ward

  • Increase Council Tax (City Council portion) by 1.95% for 2016/17. The first increase for seven years. This equates for a Band D property to one pence, per day, for the whole household.