Council plan 5% tax rise

Royal Greenwich residents could be faced with a 5% rise in their council tax bill from this April.

The news comes as the local authority are looking to make over £30million worth of cuts including reducing how often streets are cleaned.

Royal Borough of Greenwich say, in a report, that ‘savings opportunities’ were planned to address overspends in the financial plan, with a budget black hole of £54m projected by 2028.

In a scrutiny meeting on 20th February, there was discussion on a potential £33.7m worth of cuts for the upcoming financial year.

The cuts could come from the budgets of local leisure facilities and libraries, children's play facilities and paid parking, with the report stating that  reducing the number and opening hours of libraries and leisure centres across the borough would provide £1.05m worth of savings.

Street cleaning could be reduced in a wave of cost-cutting measures.

The report also proposed reducing the frequency of street sweeping from weekly to as little as once per month, which it said, could deliver up to £1.2m of savings each year by removing 22 jobs from the service.

And, popular events including the Together Festival and Sparkle in the Park would be carried out every other year instead of annually, giving £73,000 of savings.

The proposals will now be passed to the authority’s cabinet for further consideration.

What do you think about the cuts?  Have your say in the comments below.