By Martin Walker
County Durham and Darlington Fire Authority has announced an increase in its budget for this year – despite having to make savings of £3m over the next three years.
The authority which covers Newton Aycliffe will spend an extra £734,000 in 2012-13 thanks to an increase in council tax.
The Authority has agreed a budget of £30.589m for the year – up 2.4% on 2011-12 – after an increase in council tax of 2.97%.
This hike is the equivalent of £1.74 per year, or 3p a week, for Band A properties which represents most households in County Durham and Darlington.
Cllr Gordon Tennant, Chairman of the Fire Authority, said “We have faced a number of difficult decisions in setting the 2012-13 budget.
“The level of grant cut that we have received is amongst the highest in the country, and we expect this to continue in future years.
“We froze council tax last year and made some extremely difficult decisions which resulted in compulsory redundancies for a number of our support staff.
“We considered carefully the option to freeze council tax again for the coming year. However, this option places an additional burden of more than half a million pounds over the medium term plan because the government funding for the freeze grant is only for one year.
“This would have significantly increased the risk of cuts to front line services, which is something we are trying extremely hard to avoid.”
John Hewitt, Treasurer to the Fire Authority, said: “We have received a disproportionate reduction in our funding compared to other fire and rescue services across the country.
“The Authority’s medium term financial position is extremely challenging because the majority of grant cuts for the fire service have not yet been announced.
“We have spoken to local people about our plans for reducing costs and the council tax options that are available and they are generally supportive of our approach.
“Local people are telling us that they want to maintain front line services in their communities.
“The Authority will continue to seek out new ways of reducing costs and is on target to implement savings totalling almost £3m by 2014-15.”