Angus Council Tax increased by more than 9%

The 9.38% figure proposed by the coalition administration was passed by a single vote at a special meeting of the full council on Tuesday.

It raises the annual Band D rate by £137.13 to £1,598.65 annually.

A second successive double-digit increase was narrowly avoided, after a rise of 11% last year.

Council leader George Meechan revealed the planned council tax rise having already set out much of the ruling group’s spending plans at the start of this week.

Those include investments in:-

• Graduate modern apprentices to boost council staffing;

• Rescue package to retain Glen Doll ranger centre;

• Complex care transition investment;;

• School safety programme;

• Disabled taxis grant scheme;

• Environmental fund including dog fouling education;

• Charges for council services will rise around 5% on average.

The leader said the Angus budget focuses on “reality, honesty and ambition”.

The administration budget incorporates £10.9m of uncommitted reserves.

However, Mr Meechan pledged it would not mean they would splash the cash.

He said: “Our guiding principle is we will only draw from reserves where it’s responsible, sustainable and in the public interest.”

Mr Meechan went on to defend the scale of the increase.

He added that, at Band D, the increase equates to £2.64 per week, and that the county’s council tax is still expected to be one of the lowest in Scotland.

He said: “This is a budget that focuses on reality, honesty and refuses to lose ambition.

“Based on what we know from other councils’ budget decisions, we expect council tax in Angus to remain one of the lowest in Scotland.”

The council’s SNP/Independent group proposed a council tax rise of 8.3%.

Opposition leader Councillor Bill Duff said the administration plans had the “prudence of a drunken sailor on shore leave” and expressed concern at the use of reserves to “fund a plethora of one-off spends”.

At the end of a three-hour meeting, the administration budget was approved by 14 votes to 13. Arbroath Independent councillor Lois Speed was the only member not to vote.

She abstained after earlier seeing the chamber unanimously agree a motion put forward by her condemning the council’s Scottish Government funding settlement.

Ms Speed said: “We are here today under the weight of a truth that’s becoming harder to ignore. The system we are working within is broken. We are being asked to make decisions no responsible tier of government should ever be asked to make.”

After the meeting, Mr Duff added: “Today, the Tory-Labour coalition Administration has burned through the last of the available reserves while landing struggling families with a 9.38% council tax rise. The SNP's alternative would have kept the rise to a lower 8.3% while protecting core services and investing in infrastructure.

“During the debate, the lacklustre approach of the current Administration to infrastructure was utterly exposed. The Council leader admitted that there was ‘no plan’ for tackling the effects of Storm Babet in Brechin, Tannadice and Finavon - or coastal erosion in Montrose.

“While we didn't get our proposals passed, we did secure funding to explore a publicly-owned energy generation scheme at Restenneth landfill site, putting energy into the hands of local people. We will now hold this Administration's feet to the fire to see these investments delivered.”