Conservatives' Inflation-busting Council Tax rise condemned

Reacting to the news that Hinckley and Bosworth's Conservative

administration intends to increase the Council Tax by 4.5%, Lib Dem
Opposition Leader Cllr Stuart Bray (Lib Dem, Hinckley Castle) said:

"We will be opposing this inflation-busting rise. During the last Lib
Dem administration we froze Council Tax for 5 consecutive years,
protected front-line services and put money away for a rainy day. After
less than a year the Tories have already made a mess of it.

"The last Conservative administration hiked up Council Tax and other
charges and it's happening all over again. The last Lib Dem Council set
in place new ways for the Council to make money on land it proposed to
sell off, if the Conservatives had continued that at the pace we had
intended then it was very likely that no increase would have been
necessary again this year."

This is on top of the new that Tory-controlled Leicestershire County
Council is also increasing their share of the Council Tax by 4% too.

Lib Dem Finance Spokesman Cllr Keith Lynch (Lib Dem, Hinckley
Clarendon) added: "George Osborne promised no tax rises but when he
takes such vast amounts of money away from councils, its local residents
that end up covering the gap with their Council Tax.

"With the Conservatives in charge at Westminster and both local
councils there is nobody else for them to blame."