COUNCIL tax is set to increase by £5 for Bromsgrove residents. 

Bromsgrove District councillors have agreed to a £5 increase to the local authority’s section of the council tax bill which will see a Band D property paying £238 a year for district services.

These include waste and recycling collections, parks, play areas and events, processing of planning applications and car parks, which haven’t seen an increase in charges since 2011.

However, the council will not be supporting the New Homes Bonus Community Grants Scheme this year. The council say "the funding we would have received from government is much reduced and needed to support the financial position."

Cllr Geoff Denaro who presented the “budget put together despite many uncertainties” on Wednesday, February 23 said: “This is a transitional budget in that we are emerging from a pandemic which not only had a massive impact on our communities but the way this council served them with a lot of our back-office staff working from home and who

Cllr Denaro also told the Chamber that the £397k left in Covid fund reserves was set to be used up and that car parking charges were still among the lowest in the county despite a projected revenue loss of more than £200k for 22/23.

Council leader Karen May said: “While this has been a challenging budget we haven’t cut any frontline services of which I am very proud.

“We did leave 2021 on a high with the £14.5m levelling up fund investment which is earmarked for specific projects at two sites and also sees this Council putting £1.6m towards it.

“While we welcomed the alternative budgets put together by colleagues in the Chamber, I believe ours is realistic and is a balance of tough decisions and investment in areas which will benefit our residents.”