Ruddington residents now have a better idea of how much more we’ll need to budget for from this April, following our County Council’s annual announcement today (22nd February 2024).
During the full Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) budget meeting at County Hall it was agreed their Council Tax precept (the biggest share of the bills we pay) will rise by 2.84%, making it one of the lowest increases in the country.
NCC has even created two handy pie charts (below) to show where the Council’s budget comes from and how it is spent:
A spokesperson says: “63% of residents supported an increase in council tax following our ‘Rising to the Challenge’ budget survey in the autumn. 44% of those supporting a council tax increase said we should increase it to the maximum limit.”
NCC’s statement adds: “Adult Social Care Levy will increase by 2% – 48% of respondents in the survey supported this, recognising that ‘care and support for vulnerable adults and older people’ ranked in the top three of residents’ priorities.”
Certainly whilst adult social care & public health takes the biggest slice, Nottinghamshire’s schools aren’t far behind. This is of particular relevance to our village right now, since NCC is under fire for earmarking cash contributions from Ruddington’s new housing developers to create more Infant and Junior School places in Edwalton and West Bridgford. This is instead of expanding our own schools to provide sufficient pupil places here in Ruddington, as had originally been promised.
Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) announced earlier this month that its Council Tax level will again be the lowest in Nottinghamshire (for a ‘Band D’ property an increase of £3.93 or 2.55% – that’s 7.5 pence per week) subject to Full Council approval at Rushcliffe Arena on March 7th 2024.
RBC also remains debt-free and claims to be the only Council in Nottinghamshire which is not incurring the costs of expensive borrowing. That means its share of the Council Tax bill for Ruddington residents in 2024/2025 is expected to remain in the lowest 25% in the country, as well as the lowest in the county. The authority promises there will be a continued environmental focus and that it will prioritise the safety of residents responding to flooding emergencies.
RBC’s Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance, Transformation and Governance, Cllr Davinder Virdi, says: “With recently additional government funding we propose utilising £100,000 of the Government’s Funding Guarantee for the Climate Change Reserve that could see us further improve our green spaces within the Borough as we work towards a Carbon Neutral Borough by 2030. We are also looking to set up a £28,000 Flood Grant and Resilience Reserve to help local properties in flooding emergencies and address gaps we see in the current national guidance when the national flood scheme is in operation. The funding will also re-invigorate the existing flood resilience store grant scheme to assist communities in managing floods in their local areas.”
Cllr Virdi adds: “This budget demonstrates our ability to ride a number of financial storms, come out of the other side and continue to deliver excellent services. We still have to take difficult decisions but we are maintaining high levels of service and not cutting back on them. The budget supports the most vulnerable such as the homeless and balancing other objectives.”
Meantime, another decision made by Nottinghamshire County Councillors today was to invest £5m to “improve local bus services”, including “expanding the ‘Nottsbus on Demand’ service”. Last November, RUDDINGTON.info reported on the planned change to our Nottsbus Connect 863 Ruddington to Keyworth service. This currently has scheduled buses running return journeys three times a day, six days a week, between the two villages – also providing an important link to Wysall, Willoughy and Widmerpool, as detailed >>HERE<<. However, this formal timetable is soon set to be scrapped in favour of ‘DRT’ – Demand Responsive Transport – which is like a less expensive ‘taxi service’; although obviously not as flexible as booking a cab.
The rest of our Council Tax bill (a relatively small percentage) goes to pay Nottinghamshire Police, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and Ruddington Parish Council for the cover and services they provide within Ruddington.
