Council tax bills in Bolton to rise by 5%

Council tax bills in Bolton are set to rise by five per cent if town hall budget proposals are confirmed later this month. Bill payers face a rise of five per cent to Bolton Council’s element of the tax from April with the budget set to be finalised at full council meeting on February 12.

A meeting of the council’s cabinet heard the Labour-run authority had an improved financial position following ‘a more generous government settlement than anticipated’. This included a children’s social care prevention grant of £2.1m and a recovery grant of £9.2m.

If approved, the council tax bill for a typical Band D property will rise from £2,141 per year to £2,260, an increase of £119 per household.

But the council said financial challenges remain, with growing demand for services combined with rising costs forcing the council to make savings of £7.8m, down from an original target of £8.2m. The increase in funding means the council has scrapped plans to introduce a charge for garden waste bin collections.

Other planned cuts such as not re-filling the borough’s 500 grit bins and reducing the number of environmental health officers have also been reversed. Leader of Bolton Council, Coun Nick Peel, said: “This additional funding from the government is welcomed for Bolton and relieves some of the pressure on the council’s finances. We still face significant pressure with an ever-growing demand for adults and children’s services combined with rising costs.

“However, we have listened to people’s feedback and it is clear there was considerable concern about some of the proposed cuts. “I am delighted that these could now be taken off the table.”

Conservative opposition leader Martyn Cox told the cabinet meeting that residents had ‘had