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By KIM JANSSEN
 
What you will pay
Band

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Bill

£906.37
£1035.86
£1165.34
£1285.25
£1553.78
£1812.75
£2201.19
£2589.64
Piggy-bank raid to keep tax rise down

LABOUR set out its stall for May’s elections last night by raiding the Town Hall piggy bank to pay for a low council tax rise while investing £14 million in Kentish Town Swimming Pool.
Finance chief Cllr Anna Stewart’s budget will see £2.5 million taken from council reserves, stretching Camden’s financial safety net to the limit and prompting a warning against further withdrawals from finance director Mike O’Donnell.
The move sees council tax rise by just under two per cent – in line with inflation – while Mayor Ken Livingstone’s 13 per cent increase in his section of the bill brings the total rise to just under three per cent.
It means the average band D household will pay £1,285.25 a year from April.
Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats say council tax freeze would be possible if backroom staff were fired, saving the average band D household just under £30 a year.
But Cllr Stewart said: “Over the years we have ensured low, steady increases in Council Tax.
“This year Camden residents will once again benefit from one of the lowest rises in London whilst putting extra money into projects for young people and making our borough safer.”
The budget includes cash for several key council policies which are losing central government funding, including its Asbo campaign in Camden Town and Bloomsbury and the Sure Start program for pre-school children.
But Labour was forced to find savings of £6 million after a massive reduction in the number of parking tickets issued this year and a failure to collect fines issued in 2004.
The lion’s share of savings come from the culture budget, slashed by £7 million, although officers say most of that is accounted for by the massive reorganisation of the Town Hall last year.
But Cllr Stewart insisted the council coffers were not reliant on revenue from motorists, adding: “It’s a question of enforcement, not revenue raising, and the two issues should not be confused.”
Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Keith Moffit said: “We have been saying that the council has held reserves that are too large for years and every time we have been ridiculed by Labour members in the chamber.
“Now they are doing it at last, but there is further scope for savings and a zero per cent rise out to be easily achievable.”
Tory finance spokesman Andrew Marshall added: “We have identified several millions of spending that could be taken out without local residents noticing any impact on services they care about. Labour’s political priorities mean they just can’t make these savings.
“The slight reduction in Labour’s tax increase from the original 3 per cent to 2 per cent is
only because they have decided to spend more of the reserves in an election year, which just means the tax would increase again next year under Labour.”
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