Latest news with #LiberalDemocrat-controlled
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Drastic' action needed to save £1 bus fares
A mayor who pledged to retain a discounted bus scheme warned it was in danger of being lost unless "something drastic" was done. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority's (CPCA) Tiger bus pass allows people under 25 to travel for £1 and has been used on more than a million journeys. It was introduced by former Labour mayor Nik Johnson, with his Conservative successor Paul Bristow promising it would stay in a BBC interview last month. A recommendation on how to continue funding it beyond the end of the year was not agreed by the CPCA board and will be discussed again at a transport meeting on 25 June. Chris Boden, leader of the Conservative-led Fenland District Council, had argued the council should not continue its local bus fare cap beyond December, when it is currently due to end, and instead fund the Tiger pass. Maintaining the Tiger pass once the national £3 bus fare cap had also ceased in December could mean the CPCA would have to reimburse bus operators to the tune of £473,000 a month, and £6.2m a year, a report to the board stated. "If we don't take some quite drastic action, which involves a large amount of money being shifted around in the budget, then the Tiger pass will stop," he warned. He argued the Tiger pass must be continued to build up passenger numbers but would otherwise run out of funding in the autumn. The measure could run until March, he said, when a new budget and proposal would be put forward. "We have an opportunity here with £1.8m in the budget for the fare cap coming on December 31," he said. "If that money were utilised towards the continuation of the existing Tiger pass to March 31, that would be a very significant part of the funding needed for that." Speaking in support of the proposal, Bristow said: "We are in danger of losing the Tiger pass if we don't do something drastic. "What people want is continuity and security." Lucy Nethsingha, leader of the Liberal Democrat-controlled Cambridgeshire County Council, said she thought the Tiger pass was a "priority" but would rather everyone had the correct figures before making a decision. Anna Bailey, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council - led by the Tories - supported the recommendation and said the bus fare cap was the "wrong choice" when the Tiger pass was unfunded. Cambridge City Labour councillor Anna Smith, who was deputy mayor when the Tiger pass was introduced, suggested looking beyond the transport budget to find money for the bus pass. The Tiger bus pass and bus fare cap are due to be discussed at a transport meeting on 25 June before being brought back to the board in July. Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Mayor fights to keep Fenland town's bus route £1 Tiger bus pass staying, says new mayor CPCA
BBC News
31-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Council to spend £1.2m on Overstrand's 'degraded' sea wall
A report has warned that sea defences on part of the Norfolk coast have become "severely degraded" and recommends that £1.28m is spent to improve members of North Norfolk District Council are expected to back proposals to carry out work on the sea wall at report said that two major fractures have appeared in the wall, which has become undermined as sand on the beach has been washed council's Liberal Democrat-controlled cabinet has been advised to approve the works, with advice given that the authority may be able to get a grant from the government to help with costs. A section of the wall that is often used as a promenade was closed to the public earlier this month after what was described as a "cliff-slip".Coastal erosion has been a serious issue along the north Norfolk coastline for some time, with Happisburgh badly major work has taken place to better protect Cromer and Mundesley. The report on Overstrand's sea wall warned that if it were to fail, there would be "a significantly detrimental impact" on the local community and said that, in the last financial year, more than a third of the council's coastal repair and maintenance budget of £300,000 had been spent on works in the village – and that costs were likely to keep suggested that if the council spent £1.28m on improvements to the wall, it may be able to obtain £386,000 in grant funding to help with the council's cabinet is due to discuss the report on Monday. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Nine in 10 councils in England to levy maximum council tax increase
Most households in England will be charged the maximum increase in council tax for the third consecutive year after local authorities confirmed their plans before the 2025-26 financial year. Nearly nine in 10 (88%) of 153 upper-tier authorities in England will impose a 4.99% increase in April, the most allowed without triggering a local referendum. If councils increasing bills by 4.5% or more this year are included in the tally, the proportion rises to more than nine in 10 (94%), according to analysis by the PA news agency. Council leaders said the increases were vital after more than a decade of funding cuts had left many local authorities suffering spending shortfalls while others more severely affected had either declared themselves technically insolvent or on course to run out of cash. While some councils have run out of funds due to ill-judged speculative investments or, like Birmingham, a costly legal dispute, most have seen their finances overwhelmed by the rising cost of children and adult care bills. Six English councils have been given permission by ministers to consider rises of up to 10% in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy. Labour-run Bradford council in Yorkshire and Newham in east London were given the green light to raise council bills by 9.99% and 8.99% respectively, while Liberal Democrat-controlled Windsor and Maidenhead, which asked for a 25% rise, was allowed to raise bills by up to 8.99%. Lib Dem-run Somerset and Labour-controlled Trafford were told that 7.4% could be the limit. Labour-run Birmingham, which is in special measures after declaring effective bankruptcy in 2023, was given the same 7.4% limit. Bills can rise by even more when parish and town councils or mayoral combined authorities add their own precept, where no thresholds for local referendums are applied. For just over two-thirds (68%) of top-tier authorities, it will be the third year in a row that bills have gone up by at least the maximum legal amount. By contrast, nine councils have restricted bill increases to less than 4.5% this year. Sunderland has chosen a 4.49% increase, Kensington & Chelsea in west London 4%, Doncaster and Derby have both opted for 3.99%, while North East Lincolnshire will increase bills by 3.98%. Derby, which is run by a minority Labour administration, had planned to increase council tax rates by 4.99%, but was forced by opposition councillors to backtrack. Council tax in Essex will rise by 3.75% and in Rotherham by 3%. Lincolnshire will boost bills by 2.99% while Wandsworth in London has approved the lowest increase in England of 2%, representing a freeze on the main element of council tax for the third year in a row. The south London council said its website: 'Sound financial management is at the heart of everything we do 'Wandsworth has one of the lowest levels of debt and some of the highest financial reserves in London, allowing us to freeze the main element of councils tax and invest in what matters most.' However, the vast majority of residents in England continue to face maximum council tax increases. The 4.99% cap, which includes a 2% adult social care precept, has been agreed by 68% of upper-tier councils in each of the past three years, with 84% having done so in 2025-26 and 2024-25. A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: 'While councils are ultimately responsible for setting their own council tax levels, we are clear that they should put taxpayers first and carefully consider the impact of their decisions. 'That's why we are maintaining a referendum threshold on council tax rises, so taxpayers can have the final say and be protected from excessive increases.' A spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents councils across England, said: 'Councils continue to face severe funding shortages and soaring cost and demand pressures on local services. 'This means that many councils have faced the tough choice about whether to increase bills to bring in desperately needed funding to provide services at a time when they are acutely aware of the significant burden that could place on some households. 'However, while council tax is an important funding stream, the significant financial pressures facing local services cannot be met by council tax income alone. It also raises different amounts in different parts of the country – unrelated to need. 'The spending review needs to ensure councils have adequate funding to deliver the services local people want to see.'
BBC News
10-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Theale recycling plant set for government decision
The government is set to decide whether a proposed new recycling plant - capable of producing a component of sustainable aviation fuel - can go £100m plant planned by Environmental Power International and Claude Fenton Holdings for Theale Quarry, near Reading, aims to use a process called pyrolysis which they say deals with waste with no burning or combustion and therefore no Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government has called the application in, taking the decision out of the hands of West Berkshire Council. No reason has been developers said it would "support the decarbonisation of the aviation sector". Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of organic material, with heat in the absence of developers said the proposed facility would turn non-recyclable waste into usable products, including bio-naphtha for use in sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen and solid would be among the first full -scale commercial operations of its type in the country, employing 36 aviation fuels (SAFs) are synthetic alternatives to fossil fuels, made from renewable planning application, submitted in April 2024, is for two large single-storey industrial buildings, with two two-storey Power International and Claude Fenton Holdings said the facility would reduce the environmental impacts associated with landfilling and incineration of waste, as well as reducing reliance on fossil fuels."The process also has the capacity to achieve highly significant levels of carbon capture with the whole process calculated to be overall carbon said it would "play an important part" in meeting the council's climate change targets, as well as supporting the UK's aims to be carbon net zero by Poole, portfolio holder for transformation and corporate programme on the Liberal Democrat-controlled council, said: "No one thinks of waste treatment as sexy or fun, but when it comes to carbon removal I am really rather proud there is a site being considered here in West Berkshire." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
