Less than £1 a week

12.00.00am GMT Sun 6th Feb 2005

Milton Keynes Council's Liberal Democrat Cabinet has confirmed that the proposed Council Tax rise, which will be put to a meeting of the full Council on 28 February, will be 4.5% for 2005-2006. The rise means that most people in Milton Keynes will pay less than £1 a week extra.

Public consultation on the council tax proposals has just ended. The results showed the Liberal Democrat strategy was endorsed by a considerable majority of respondents. There was overwhelming support for more evenly spread council tax rises rather than a low rise this year and a higher rise next year.

The only detailed proposal that the public did not agree with was a reduction in roadside weed-killing. The Liberal Democrat Cabinet has listened to this concern and will not be reducing this programme.

A 4.5% increase:

• will take the Council's budget to the level that the Government says Milton Keynes should be spending (the Government has criticised Milton Keynes in the past for spending too little)

• is within the Government's expectation that council tax increases this year will be less than 5%

• is likely to be below the national average (for each of the three years the Liberal Democrats have run Milton Keynes Council, increases in council tax have been below the national average).

Councillor Cec Tallack, Liberal Democrat Cabinet member for finance said: "The Liberal Democrats remain the Party that protects services, keeps costs down and plans for the future. We recognise that even 4.5% is a big increase for some pensioners and households on fixed or low incomes. A Liberal Democrat Government would replace council tax with a local income tax that is much fairer and reflects people's ability to pay. But for now, we have to operate within the existing unfair council tax system."

The main priorities in the Liberal Democrat budget proposals are:

• Investing new money (totalling £1.5 million) into priority services in line with our manifesto commitments, including waste enforcement, dealing with anti-social behaviour, early years education, mental health services, planning enforcement, highway and pavement repairs, and restoring the out-of-hours environmental health service in the summer

• Meeting a significant part of our new expenditure from savings

• Providing a prudent budget by planning for the future and protecting services in the longer term.

Council Leader, Isobel Wilson said: "In drawing up our budget proposals an important aim is to reduce the burden for council tax payers in future years. The extra money provided by the Government this year, as a one-off in the run-up to the General Election, will be used to generate savings in future years. For example, it is far better to invest now in fixing the roads and pavements rather than to wait until they fall apart and end up paying more to completely rebuild them.

"To fund the growth of Milton Keynes properly, the Government would need to give us an additional £29 million over the next 7 years. The reality is that, in spite of the increase they've given us this year, we're still under-funded as a growth area. We will continue to fight for a fair deal for Milton Keynes."