Council tax bills to rise across Rother Valley

The rising cost equates to the council tax on a Band D property increasing from £1,567.71 to £1,614.58.

The extra cash will generate £114.2million for the council to fund much-needed services -added pressures on areas such as social care have led to extra spending of around £30m on pre-pandemic budget forecasts.

The rise is made up of 1.99 basic council tax and a one per cent rise in the Adult Social Care Levy.

As part of its budget proposals, Rotherham Council has pledged not to cut any additional services, to freeze the cost of car parking, Civic Theatre ticket prices and market rents, and extend free Saturday car parking.

Flood defences, children’s social care and improvements to council homes are also a priority in this year’s budget.

A total of £5.8m is budgeted to carry out “pre-construction design and approval work” for six flood alleviation schemes in the borough, as well as £65m to improve existing council homes.

Basic council tax charges will rise by 1.99 per cent, plus a further one per cent rise in the government’s Adult Social Care Levy.

The council is proposing funding within the budget to replace unsafe concrete street lights and an additional £1.6 million to find a new permanent home for the REACH Day Centre, which is used by adults with autism and learning disabilities.

Councillor Chris Read, leader of the council told the meeting: “After 11 years of Tory austerity, and in the face of a global pandemic. It should be no surprise that councils across the country are under unprecedented pressure.

“When [the government] announced an extra £2.2 billion for councils, they forgot to mention that 85 per cent of it would come out of council taxpayers pockets and not from government coffers.

“Maybe now, after 11 years, we can all just agree that you can’t run public services on thin air.”

Councillor Dominic Beck, added that the budget was a “really forward-thinking, progressive budget in difficult times.”

The budget include a £236m revenue budget – the money the council uses for providing day-to-day services – and a £163m capital programme, which is for one-off expenditure on equipment or investment in longer-term developments.

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