Conservative Councillors told a full meeting of the Council that as an opposition it is possibly one of the most
frustrating tasks to scrutinize the Council’s budget, decide how in our opinion it could be so much better and
realising that until May 6th when Elections for the Council and City Mayor will be held we have no real power to
change it, but we look forward to May 6th this year, when we will be asking the people of Salford to give us this
opportunity.
However Conservative Councillors said that because of the extraordinary circumstances our residents have been
put through, that this Council must this year do all in its power to relieve the burden on Council Taxpayers. This
will not be easy, hard decisions never are, but it is our job as a Council to make these hard decisions.
Councillor Turner reminded the Council that “the Government have played their part by providing Salford with
over £120 million in grants and loans to help our residents through these difficult times. It is now up to us to play
our part”. He went on to say “that the Council needed to collect more of its Council tax which will in turn help to
keep the Council Tax lower”.
Large numbers of our residents have been furloughed and suffered dramatic reductions in income, many have
lost their jobs and do not know if they will get them back and this will have repercussions on families for many
years.
Councillor Robin Garrido said that “we must not add to this financial burden our residents are facing and this is
why we are proposing a zero per cent increase of ‘Salford’s Council Tax’ apart from unfortunately the Greater
Manchester Mayors precept which will add about half per cent to everyone’s council tax. Just let me mention
here that Mr. Burnham could well have frozen any increase this year but chose not to”.
The Conservative proposal was voted down by Labour.
Councillor Turner commented that we should not be surprised that the City Mayor proposes increasing council
tax yet again Council Tax on a band D property doubled under the last Labour Government up by 109% from
£688 to £1439. Indeed the City Mayor is in favour of scrapping the provision of holding a public referendum which
is currently required if you want to increase Council tax by over 2%.
Conservatives reminded the Council that Labour has been in charge of this City for 47 years and unfortunately
have one of the worst records when it comes to raising taxes whether that be under the old rates system or the
current council tax system and let us remember this Labour Council when working with the last Labour
Government levied some of the highest Rates/Council taxes in the country with consolidated increases of well
over 80% over a number of years. They were only forced to cut these excesses by a Conservative Government
who placed a cap on increases.
Councillor Turner ended by saying, “the message is clear if you want your Council Tax to increase every year vote
Labour if not vote Conservative”.
