The following is a statement from Maldon District Council Conservatives released today on the issue of council tax (2 March):

"At the meeting on 23rd February the Conservative Group decided to put an alternative budget to Maldon District Council to allow for a 0% rise in the Council Tax for the next year, to support local people and local businesses, as have Essex County Council and several other Conservative-majority authorities in Essex.

"The budget presented by the new Independent administration included a rise of £5 per year on a Band D property, the maximum permitted by the Government without a referendum. That is a 2.47% increase on 2020-21.

"In normal circumstances we may have supported this level of increase, however these are not normal times and the effects of Covid-19 on residents and businesses in the district have been considerable, including a sharp rise in unemployment figures.

"The Conservative Group, led by Councillor Penny Channer, worked hard to find ways to minimize use of reserves to achieve a nil increase because we all know they can only be spent once, but as a Conservative member said, many of our residents have already used all their reserves having had to spend their savings to make up for loss of income. There is little point in

keeping reserves for a rainy day if we then won't use them to relieve the effects of a major storm.

"Although this is an election year for the County Council, the Maldon District has only two by elections, so Conservatives feel accusations of political manoeuvring made at the budget meeting could be seen as disingenuous.

"The Conservatives had hoped to be joined by enough Independent members to allow our residents to keep as much of their hard-earned

money as possible, however every Independent apart from the chairman (who abstained) voted for the maximum permitted rise.

"While we hope to be able to work with the new administration, our task remains to ensure our residents receive the quality and value services they deserve, and that means the Conservatives will challenge and debate, not simply agree to proposals we believe could be better. "