WAVENEY District Council last night voted to increase its share of the council tax by 3.9pc after councillors agreed to a freeze of their proposed expenses rise.
WAVENEY District Council last night voted to increase its share of the council tax by 3.9pc after councillors agreed to a freeze of their proposed expenses rise.
The Conservative-led authority said it had considered a tax increase of about 5pc, but leader Mark Bee said: 'Clearly in this time of economic downturn, this is not the way to do it.
'This is a budget that I feel needs to strike the right balance between maintaining high quality services and keeping the cost to our communities down.'
The proposal to freeze the 2.5pc increase in expenses received unanimous support, but the opposition Labour group tabled an amendment to remove special responsibility allowances to allow for a council tax increase of just 2.9pc. However, the proposal failed to win enough votes.
The Lib Dem group backed this year's budget, but Green councillor Graham Elliott accused the ruling Tory group of hypocrisy for proposing a freeze on expenses. He made the same proposal at a meeting in November, which was turned down.
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