Basildon

The Basildon Council Labour Group has been forced to place councillors on the Conservative Administration’s two new Scrutiny Committees.  The Committee System of governance that Basildon Borough Council operates under gives all councillors a say in how the council is run and allows opposition councillors the opportunity to scrutinise all decisions made at each meeting as they happen.  Under the previous cabinet system many decisions were made by a handful of councillors and the only way to challenge them by opposition councillors was to refer them to a scrutiny committee. (more…)

Concern has been raised that the Basildon Conservatives are about to break a key election promise and raise Council Tax for the next 10 years.  A report presented to the councils Corporate Resources committee which set out the financial forecast and the budget setting process outlined an assumption that Council Tax will increase by 2.99% for 2019/20 and 1.99% per annum thereafter.  Introducing the agenda item, the Chair, Cllr Stuart Sullivan said of the assumptions “I consider these assumptions to be prudent.”  This is despite the Conservatives making claims in their recent literature during the May Borough Council Elections that they would not have raised council tax and will keep tax low. (more…)