East Cambridgeshire Tories, whose poor financial management has forced them to make spending cuts across the district, have taken full credit for a freeze in council tax when it has only been made possible by a grant from the coalition government.

The district council has been offered a £99,000 grant – equivalent to a 2.5 per cent council tax increase – to keep the council tax unchanged

This was unanimously accepted at the East Cambs Policy & Resources Committee and full Council meeting. Nearly every district and county council in the country accepted an offer of grant equal to 2.5% council tax increase and froze their council tax for next year. This measure was to help council tax payers across the country during this difficult time.

But local Tories failed to mention this new government grant and instead claim the credit for freezing council tax in 2011.

Our Local Tories also claim that they will save money by reducing the number of councillors, but fail to mention that this cannot be done until 2016 at the earliest and would involve changing every ward boundary in the district, a process that cost £250,000 last time it was done.

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