Fire Authority Announces Council Tax for 2008/09

 FIRE AUTHORITY ANNOUNCES COUNCIL TAX FOR 2008/09

DATE:             24/01/2008

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority (NYFRA) unanimously agreed an increase in the fire and rescue authority element of council tax of 4.5% at its meeting yesterday, which means a charge of £58.56 for the year, or £1.13 a week, for a Band D property.

The Authority is projecting a 3.5% increase in expenditure next year. However, the current proposed central government funding is only set to increase by 1%, so the Authority needs to raise extra funds through council tax and by using some of its reserves. This will help make sure it can continue to provide its range of emergency intervention and prevention services to the communities of North Yorkshire and the City of York.

John Fort, Chair of NYFRA said: "The poor government funding settlement for this year left us with this difficult decision. We have had to raise our element of the council tax by 4.5%, which is at the top end of what we would've liked.

"Even with this increase, we will also need to use reserves of £120,000. Obviously these can only be used once - it is not an endless supply so we now have the unenviable task of looking at what further savings can be made in the future so that we don't have to place any undue burden on council tax payers. We will also be campaigning for a better government funding settlement from 2009 onwards.

"To put this increase into perspective, a 4.5% increase will mean around an extra 5 pence per week for a typical household in a Band D property. We hope that local people don't feel that this is too excessive to maintain the fire and rescue service in their communities."

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