For the seventh year in a row we’re proposing that council tax rise by less than the government’s referendum limit, choices which will save some households more than £100 next year. For the third year in a row we will be amongst the lowest increases anywhere in Yorkshire.

That council tax increase is lower than Conservative North Yorkshire, Lib Dem-controlled East Riding, and seven out of ten Reform-led councils. Last year in all those areas Reform promised to freeze council tax. In every single area they now control, they lied.

Changes to the way that the government funds local authorities means that under a Labour government Rotherham is expected to receive some £9.2 million in extra funding next year above what we had anticipated a year ago.

However, rising social care costs will require a £13.4 million uplift across Children’s and Adult Services. Social care accounts for about 60% of the Council’s expenditure.

Labour councillors will be voting for:

• More opportunities for children and young people: 10,000 more free day places for children across a range of activities during the school holidays, adding to those already available to children in receipt of free school meals. A further £100,000  to create thousands more universal youth work places across the borough, and new youth outreach and engagement vehicles.
• Thriving Neighbourhoods: A new dedicated team to support High Street businesses in Rotherham’s principal towns (Dinnington, Maltby, Swinton and Wath) as well as the town centre to flourish, providing business advice and support, liaising with other council services, and facilitating local promotions and events. More events for our communities, and capital investments at Ulley Country Park, replacing the running track at Herringthorpe, and additional staffing for Rother Valley Country Park. Labour will pilot half price swimming in the borough’s four leisure centres for people aged over 65.
• A cleaner borough: A £272,000 investment will double the Council’s Roadside Cleansing team, clearing litter from grass verges across Rotherham, while £129,000 will improve Household Waste Recycling Centres including by providing an on-site re-use shop. The cheaper Household Bulky Waste collection charges we brought in last year are also proposed to be frozen.
• Better and safer roads: Rotherham will share an additional £7 million of government road resurfacing investment next year, fixing scores of local roads. We will make available funding to design improvements to Treeton Lane crossroads ready for implementation, and to develop ward-specific road safety plans, in preparation for further investment through the government’s new road safety strategy.
• Nobody Left Behind: Last year, the Council’s Welfare Rights team, funded by MacMillan, secured more than £4 million for local residents living in the aftermath of a cancer diagnosis. Unfortunately, the national scheme is being scaled back due to funding shortages. We will will step in and provide up to £135,000 of funding to continue the service for local residents.

Meanwhile a new team is also proposed to step up activity in the borough’s six selective licensing areas (covering parts of Eastwood and Clifton, Masbrough and Kimberworth, Thurcroft, Dinnington, Brinsworth and Parkgate). £462,000 a year is proposed to provide dedicated civil enforcement in public spaces, as well as direct support and engagement to tenants, and capital investment for physical improvements to be prioritised in partnership with tenants, residents, landlords and local ward councillors. The proposal will work alongside the housing inspection and enforcement activities already committed to by the Council.

Rotherham Council Leader, Councillor Chris Read, said: “For the second successive year we have seen additional government funding starting to return to Rotherham and while it’s safe to say that there is more to do, we are a long way from the depths of ten of millions of pounds of annual cuts that we faced not so long ago. That’s the difference a Labour council, working with a Labour government, can make. It means that we can put more resources towards the things that residents told us are important, on the side of our families, businesses and communities. We can begin to improve the quality of life of residents by investing in our parks and high streets, step up efforts to keep our streets clean and tackling the kind of anti-social behaviour that blights some of our neighbourhoods.”