Dumfries and Galloway council tax rise pegged at three per cent - but some members wanted bigger increase

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Dumfries and Galloway’s council tax rise has been pegged at three per cent despite the feeling of many elected members that it should have been higher.The Labour/SNP administration proposed the below inflation figure in light of the current economic climate facing the region’s residents.Council leader Elaine Murray insisted: “This is not the time to raise council tax by any significant amount.”At Tuesday’s annual budget setting meeting, the council rubber-stamped the three per cent rise which will come into effect from April.However, that is two per cent lower than the rate of inflation and the region’s council tax level is still also well below the national average.With the council being forced into a raft of cutbacks to plug a £5m funding gap, several councillors asked why the rise was not higher this year.Socialist councillor Tommy Sloan said: “We have said in recent years that there should have been better increases in council tax.“But the Scottish Government was telling us, ‘no, let’s have a council tax freeze’.“If we hadn’t had those council tax freezes, we wouldn’t have the problem we’ve got today.”Independent Councillor Jane Maitland said: “I’m in agreement with the Socialist group that we’ve not raised council tax sufficiently high.“As an independent grouping, we felt probably that the council tax should be raised in order to provide the level of investment the people are seeking.“We are seven per cent below the national average in council tax, I really think we’ve got to change that.”Dr Murray replied: “If we had council tax at the same level as the national average, we would have covered our spending gap.“But energy bills are going through the roof, fuel is going up, food prices are going up.