10:07am Wednesday 10th March 2010
By Mark Stead
YORK’S political chiefs have been accused of dirty tricks and making “misleading” claims that the city has the lowest council tax bills in Yorkshire.
Leaflets emblazoned with the message were pushed through letterboxes throughout the city by City of York Council’s ruling Liberal Democrat group ahead of the settling of the authority’s budget for next year.
That ultimately included a 2.7 per cent rise in council tax for the year ahead. But now a row has erupted, after the political literature said York’s current bills were lower than the rest of Yorkshire, despite four other areas – Leeds, Doncaster, Wakefield and Bradford – paying less.
The Lib Dem group has now said its statement was based only on the council-controlled element of York’s tax – without taking into account the fire and police authority charges and parish precepts. The Lib Dems said the council’s share gave a charge of £1,062 for the average Band D property in 2009/10.
Holgate Labour councillor James Alexander, whose ward was among those where the leaflet was delivered, said: “This is deliberately misleading. When somebody says York has the lowest council tax in Yorkshire in big letters, they expect it to mean York residents pay the lowest council tax in Yorkshire. However, residents in places such as Leeds, Doncaster, Wakefield and Bradford all pay less than us. To say we pay less than them is simply not true.
“This reminds me of the local Lib Dem manifesto of 2003 where they said they would ‘knock around £100 off each household council tax bill in York’. After seven years, I am still waiting.”
Council leader Andrew Waller said: “Coun Alexander’s Government’s own Department for Communities and Local Government measures the council-controlled element of council tax separately from the charges levied by police and fire authorities and parish councils, so representing the figures in this way is nothing new or controversial.
“These figures enable a direct like-for-like comparison with other councils for the charge the council has direct control over. We are delivering the same services in York for less cost to residents than in other areas of Yorkshire.”
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