Council tax is to increase by 4.99%, overnight parking will jump from £1 to £2 and attractions such as Dinosaur Isle will be closed more often it has been revealed, as the Isle of Wight Council lays out its proposals for the 2021/22 Budget.
Papers released by the Council this afternoon (Wednesday) reveal a number of cuts and price increases including reducing the Local Council Tax Support Scheme from 70% to 65%, increasing charges at cemeteries and the crematorium by 7% and a hike in the overnight parking charge from £1 to £2. The mobile library service is set to be axed, the overall library book fund slashed and Lord Louis Library will only open 5 days a week.
Other changes include partially reduced opening hours at Dinosaur Isle Museum and Newport Roman Villa that will be ‘tailored to demand’. The price of admission will also increase at Newport Roman Villa.
Motorists will not escape untouched this budget with overnight charges set to increase to £2.00 from 1st October 2021, which will generate an estimated £80,000. The council also hopes to generate £13,000 by employing more traffic wardens to enforce parking restrictions. In East Cowes, Maresfield Road car park will become a long stay car park from October with payment via PayByPhone only, generating £4,000.
If that wasn’t enough, the Council is looking to introduce 2 sets of average speed cameras at a cost of £300,000 and for event organisers, parking suspension will be charged at £50 per road, increasing to £100 by 2023/24.
As expected, County Hall is looking to increase everyone’s council tax by 4.99% on top of the agreed 7.1% increase to the Police precept, as well an increase to the amount paid to the fire service and any other precept rises from local town and parish councils. A typical Band C property in Ryde, for example, will soon have to fork out another £89.42 a year, plus the precept rises.
Of the council tax increase, which has been described as ‘essential’, 3% will be going to Adult Social Care and the other 1.99% for service demands, including inflation.
Those who enjoy the seaside may be happy though as the Council intends to generate £15,800 from the erection of 32 new beach huts at St Helens, each sold on a 10-year lease.
The lawful and balanced budget sees £3.5million of savings met, of which £1.8million is considered to be ‘new savings’. Councillor Stuart Hutchinson says it is the ‘most difficult and complex budget’ he has ever had to look at.
Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, Dave Stewart, has said:
“Islanders have shown unbelievable humanity, community spirit and resilience during this pandemic — and we are determined to be at the heart of delivering a recovery which our residents are owed and deserve. We intend to invest for our collective futures as we look to the year ahead and beyond.
“What none of us knew 12 months ago was just how the coronavirus pandemic would impact on all our lives or the extent to which the council’s financial position would be put to the test.
“One year on, the virus has significantly impacted all of our lives and dominated everything we have done. We have found ourselves having to deal with perhaps the most challenging circumstances that local authorities have had to face and in which to try to set a lawful and balanced budget for the coming year.
“Today, however, we are able to present a lawful and balanced budget and a budget strategy for the next three years which underpins our ambition to keep the Island safe and to be able to rebuild our Island economy.
“In common with many other local authorities, we believe a council tax rise of 4.99 per cent is essential to give the council the best chance of meeting our social services responsibilities and the additional costs the council must cover to sustain all of the other services we provide on behalf of the Island community.
“I recognise that it is a difficult choice — but we have to find the right balance to have a sound foundation from which we can rebuild the Island’s economic, social and environmental infrastructure and provide the best life experiences we can for all of our community here on the Island.
“This budget is about working together with Islanders, our local businesses and partner organisations — as we have all endeavoured to work together throughout the pandemic for the common good and for a brighter future.
Dave Stewart has warned that the authority will be dealing with the impact of COVID-19 ‘for many years to come’.
Councillor Stewart adds:
“Through good financial management and sound leadership, we are able to present a council budget which achieves the following key objectives:
- £3.5 million of savings.
- A council tax increase of 4.99 per cent of which three per cent will be ring fenced to adult social care to ensure we support the severe demands being placed on this critical statutory service, and 1.99 per cent to meet all our other service demands including inflation.
- Additional and vital funding support for adult social care and children’s services totalling £6 million.
- A reduction in future years’ deficit to £9 million — to be spread over three years — after which our council expenditure will match our council income removing the need for future savings after 2024/25 — a financial milestone in itself.
- Substantial new capital investment in the Island of over £55 million achieved through spending council capital to leverage additional government support for coastal defences (£40.7 million), schools (£6.4 million), Branstone Farm project (£2.9 million), Disabled Facilities Grant (£1.9 million), highways improvements (£1.3 million), IT infrastructure (£1.2 million) and Compulsory Purchase Orders (£750,000).
“Our actions in rebuilding the council’s reserves by more than £6 million over the last three years, for use in extreme times, has also proved essential to the budget for next year now being proposed. Extreme times are now upon us and we must respond accordingly.
“To help us cope, we will need to rely on some £3 million of reserves leaving us with a balance of only £8.2 million at the end of 2023/24, only £1.2 million above the minimum level of reserves we are required to hold.
“The careful and prudent withdrawal of reserves to smooth out the financial shocks of the pandemic and give us time to rebuild the council’s finances again is essential.”
Seems reasonable to kick start adult social care resources.
need to cut adult social care not increase it. they need to increase scrutiny of those using it, to weed out the spongers, layabouts, liars, hypochondriacs and other useless burdens on the resources.
Many adult care scams need investigation.
Many who do work are less fit.
As some of this paid for ‘family carers’ as SOME of us know, are ‘using’ the system.
So those that do has an elderly or partly disabled or most often, a ‘stress, anxiety’ case, family member who had been ‘told’ what to say on the form to obtain home help, THEN chooses a close ‘family member’ as they then share this extra cash with no risk of being caught, when neither, in many cases are really justified in gaining such.
This fraud amounts to many thousands per case as both the so ‘called’ needy and the close family member gain thousands, and of course it goes on usually until the death of the ‘patient’.
Proving it is difficult hence it is endemic in many social housing areas, for it takes a brave person to DARE criticise the ‘sick’, yet we all KNOW it occurs.
And NO not ALL sick are careers are on the swindle but a growing number of dishonest are.
The council should NEVER pay carers allowance to family members as too easy to swindle.
This is NOT directed at those genuine, but they are the ONLY ones who criticise, those KNOWING I am right keep very very quiet.
it would be far easier, if they said, that any family member accepting a carers allowance, must attend a carers course, obtain a qualification and then accept additional care roles for others outside their family, with their newly obtained skills. That would shut down loads, immediately.
Obviously you’ve never cared for someone, 24/7, with no time off, and virtually no support. Family carers save the country billions, and for a very mean allowance
Fred people USED to do it out of pure love and compassion.
A baby and children needs ‘care’ 24/7 and the world has been supplying ‘them’ over the thousands of years up til now ‘without’ paying the ‘career’ aka as Mother or Father.
Now this ‘disability’ care allowance is used by many, NOT all, but many as an ‘additional tax free income’ when both family members are dishonest, which MANY certainly are, thus ‘one’ gets the disability, the other the care allowance, costing us all a fortune.
I am not so sure that HMG do save billions, as by the time an individual home for the ‘patient’ is often state funded rent, council tax etc, and the ‘disability payment to the ‘afflicted’ often a disability vehicle, then add the cost of the care ‘workers payment’ included, in many cases it would be cheaper to build care homes, where fully trained medical staff could ‘tend’ a dozen, rather than pay for one on one. It would also free up more social property.
It clearly would ‘weed out’ those growing list of scammers many now using the invisible mental health ‘issues’ many of which ‘conveniently’ are sporadic so hard to ‘prove’ if fake or just lying swindlers.
No offence to all those countless who are doing their best and do deserve to be compensated for loss of earnings etc if fully caring for someone, as my point is IF family, too open to fraud.
A good Idea leeches, provided the training fee was taking out of the allowance a few pounds per week, this would no doubt shake a lot out.
Although many ‘claim’ to be caring 24/7, which my answer would be, IF someone is that bad, they need professional monitoring that someone popping a cup of coffee in to them between face book chats.
These ‘care workers’ allowances when first given were done so in good faith, and when less of the population were so dishonest and grasping.
Now we have ever more filling our land, and the problem needs addressing as more jump on this scam.
thanks paddy – so many game the system – i know of one person, who lost his job due to covid, still lives with his mum and is now claiming carers allowance for looking after her, when she has been doing just fine for years.
Too large a percentage are not what they necessarily purport to be nowadays.
Disgusting 5%council tax rise how about county hall taking a pay cut not pay rise
With each new home built, this council will receive hundreds more each month. And as we have already seen massive amounts of new houses built across the Island, and, are going to see thousands more built over farmland, then their council tax income must have increased massively.
Yet we get ever more cut backs to services, and they have saved millions by combining schools and selling off the sites of such and other buildings.
So with more paying in, and less needing to be spent, our council tax ought to be lower each.
Even the homes where the tenants are on benefits and don’t pay any council tax, OUR council STILL receive such from central Government, as they do with those claiming free or heavily subsidised rent.
The waste and fraud must be massive for our bills to rise year on year, whilst their income is ever growing and cut backs ever deeper.
Vote these self serving, greedy, and imo, untrustworthy group out, as they are charging us more for providing less, AND ruining the Island with en masse building much for non Islanders.
Dave Stewart has warned that the authority will be dealing with the impact of COVID-19 ‘for many years to come’.And we will be dealing with the cock ups this council’s has made since they have been in power
‘Difficult choices’, the usual bleat from from our local council. Always skint and use this as an excuse to raise council tax, parking charges and a plethora of fees. They don’t seem to realise that the rest of us are just as cash strapped as they are.
Perhaps it is time to see if we can be represented by a council that can manage a budget instead of getting us to keep digging ever deeper into our pockets because they can’t balance the books.
Sell the floating bridge for scrapmetal, that should make a few quid,also sack the council hieracy who decided to purchase the thing saving a great deal more .
We all know Covid is having an impact, we all know the impact has come at a cost to everyone, loss of jobs and cuts in income has been a massive impact on people who now face large increases from all directions from council tax to parking charges.
There is only so much people can afford, the Council are taking money well above inflation, those lucky enough to be employed are NOT receiving 5% wage increases especially when inflation is below 2%.
Can this Council explain just how people are going to pay? and do they care?
No is the clear answer!
Totally agree
Don’t forget forking out £300k for new average speed cameras, what service is losing out paying for these?
And going by the standards of the council procurement department (based on the floating bridge) they will probably not be working most of the time!
Roll on May Mr Stuart and Co will be looking for new jobs!
Don’t forget Council Elections in May – Vote them OUT
Won’t make any difference to the 4.99% rise. If the budget is approved at the full council meeting on Feb 24th then thats it.
Not only vote them out but also empty county hall of all the rest. If only.
Yes vote them out and maybe get worse in, its a gamble either way !! I would like to know why they get paid so much.. and have extra income for expenditures… A ditch digger by spade, will work hard for at least 8 hours a day at minimum wage… that is hard labour, pen pushing and button pressing, and fake smile and fake courteousness is not worth minimum wage.. .
Anyone will be better than these idiots
What choice do you have? The LibDumbs are useless and Liebour would increase council tax even more.
And replace them with who ?
Peppa pig and scooby doo to name but two would do a better job then “ostrich Stewart and Co”… And don’t forget “seldom seen” expenses claim… Corruption at its best…
A council chosen in proportion to their electoral support would be nice.All sorts of viewpoints would be considered in the council chamber.
Now there is a lesson for any business person – work in a public sector bureaucracy and you can simply force other people to pay for whatever you desire irrespective of the quality of your own product or how badly you have screwed up, you can also force them to pay even if they don’t want a lot of your ‘services’ like promotion of climate change and eco initiatives and you can also force them to pay irrespective of their own financial positions – the only difficult choices you have to make are how to sting people for the extra cash you want, what further inconvenience you can force upon them in the process and what excuses you will use to pretend you are doing it ‘for their own benefit’
Councillor Hutchinson, admits this years budget was hard. His hardest sell, will be when we have to pay an additional precept for the bin collection. Our poll tax will just fund council wage/ pension bill, with help for some care home users. Most people, are struggling to pay this out of control tax. Perhaps social services cost could be trimmed, rather than the current bottomless pit approach. I expect Town councils will also be preparing an additional burden.
Surely with ever more cut backs, ever more increases in fees, and yet the council getting millions more from the thousands of extra homes being built here, people will this time VOTE for an other choice.
One would be hard pushed to do any worse.
Just see what they are doing to this once beautiful Island.
They having given permission with very ‘close’ and no doubt very grateful developers for thousands more homes to ruin the countryside by building on ancient green fields and meadows.
Tearing out hedgerows which are hundreds of years old, with many trees even older, being homes to not only mammals but the countless smaller bugs and insect on which birds and large animals need to survive.
Wild plants and beautiful grass land will be churned back to subsoil and smothered in homes which some applaud as they clearly need more homes, BUT many of these are not going to be just for Islanders, as the council get larger payments for taking ‘in’ mainland overspill.
This will mean MORE people, not just the same amount spread out more.
This will mean less hope of gaining a job, and because more people are chasing few jobs, then employers know they can pay the minimum and still find desperate people to fill these jobs.
Thus the poverty trap ensues, even IF you then gain work, the wages are not enough for many to ever save or gain a mortgage.
Then because we have so many extra people, with no work, anti social behaviour increases, crime rises as with no hope of bettering oneself, even more see crime as the only ‘way out’. We will then have as much crime as we see on the mainland’s high unemployment, high density life style areas.
Add thousands more people wishing to go to the already full beaches trying to find parking, add thousands more people awaiting a hospital appointment, add thousands more looking to see a doctor, and dentist, a school placing.
Imagine the congestion on bottle neck areas and the increase in accidents.
Imagine the extra land fill, the water, and power consumption.
Imagine the reason MOST live here for a poorer, but BETTER standard of life, then taking from you and your children by these greedy, self serving beings, who, will live miles away from the damage they cause, will have private education for their children, and private health care for all, yet paid for by US.
They have made nothing but cut backs, DESPITE receiving ever more council tax from all the extra properties already built, let alone the thousands more to come soon.
Where it is wasted only they truly know, but if YOU can’t see what, imo, is the worst council we have ever had, which will RUIN you standard of life here and for that of your children and STILL can’t be bothered to vote them out, then you will deserve all you are soon to get.
Whilst much damage is too late to turn around, we can slow the rot, and not make them ever richer by ruining our Island, and our living standards.
YOU can vote by post IF it is too much fuss to walk to the polling stations, need to register soon to do so, but whatever VOTE in another group, for they can never ever be any worse.
What is the other choice..? Will whomever is voted in not do the same.., they will have to go by the Governments rules.. and we all know the Government do not want to do what people want.. ! Councils will just do what is good for them, in my books ! The chap ruling at present has stopped a few of the housing programs, YAY, but would these ‘ others’ you mention do the same…? Maybe… maybe not.. !! BUT I would like to see the chap that said to build that Albatross of a chain ferry, whom is also the same chap that disintegrated a beautiful roundabout, and has more disasters up his sleeve ruining the beauty of this Island.. voted out..
I would also like to know why do they keep wanting supermarkets built in NEWPORT ? The worst place to go on this Island !”!
Got to give all the new housing developments a choice of supermarkets ,and of course the brown envelope!!!! For their pockets …….
Under FPTP Councils only need to represent the minority that assume power under this antiquated system.
“Islanders have shown unbelievable humanity, community spirit and resilience during this pandemic — and we are determined to be at the heart of delivering a recovery which our residents are owed and deserve”. Pity the council doesn’t show some of the same characteristics.
This will definitely increase self harming and suicides.
Council, your supposed to be cutting funeral costs, because it’s been identified as a national racket, not increasing them !!!
Come off it they are rubbing their grubby little hands together, another way to rip us all off you live you pay and when you die they stick the boot in 2 all the families left behind giant vicious circle, and the only one’s to win are the ruddy fat cats in the council.
Vote them out ? Ruddy better to shoot them ,or put them on the f/ bridge and blow them up with the heap of junk .
the best racket, is that those who work in the council, pay their own council tax, then get it back as wages the next month
Wonder if the new crem will get past planing or will it be squashed as direct competition?
So by employing more traffic wardens to generate 13k in enforcing parking restrictions unless they are working for free surely it’ll cost more in wages than income generated. Logical not.
These vile greedy beings, KNOW that as thousands more flock to the beaches in the Summer that many will risk parking in areas where they shouldn’t for an after work swim.
.
Likely all the places official parking will be filled with tourists, and the growing number on benefit freeloaders coming here, using their free rent, free council tax, free school uniforms, free school dinners, help with heating, etc etc etc, to then spend their day and evenings on the beaches, well able to afford to spend some of the hundreds they get per week on a parking meter, with little else to spend it on, as all the essentials are covered by our charity via subsidised living costs. so all they money for is their own pleasures.
Joke is they will be cared for from the cradle to the grave, and even that will be paid for by the state, as by always spending everything, they will never pay for what the rest of us have to.
And they have all the time in the world to enjoy life, yet are oft the most useless at parenting, keeping their provided homes and gardens tidy, as they have no need to. for a newer one will be given, once they have filled the first to over capacity.
See these things for what too many now are.
Vote this council out, who do nothing but encourage ever more here to ruin this Island and our lives
Perhaps we can do with half a dozen less of these pen pushers and they could cancel their massive pay rise minus our contributions towards their fat cat pension and we would be quids in.(15/20 percent of our council tax)
Seely could pay back his £40,000 OVERSPEND and cut his other expenditure to no sausage !!!!
They could scrap the crap floating (non) Bridge.
It would be cheaper to drive around than keep throwing cash at crap .
Joe Public could run this council better than the idiot’s we have in now.
And 2 be honest the 1s who have thrown their hat in the ring don’t sound any better eg Bacon Butty !!!!!.
All fur coat and no knickers ,or style over substance to be posh !!!!
5% on council tax and then you want to spend £300.000 on 2 speed camaras .And then 32 new beach huts you lot are a joke .I thought the council were ment to help the island people not stitch us up .And a chain ferry that collects more dust than fares .you should be saving us money not spending it
Yes well we do need 32 beach huts ,where else are they going to have their BBQs.
Can’t have them missing out on their sausages can we .
And of course the 2nd home owners need somewhere to change into their cossies !!! Lol
Unbelievable they only just taken down the (not being used for years) speed cameras probably cost £100,000 doing it and I thought the reason was they weren’t making money, now they want to spend £300,000 on new ones, I’ve never seen so much public money wasted from one council.
And don’t forget all the money wasted on the Floating ‘disaster’. Bet that runs into millions if you include the purchase price. All our council Tax wasted. The Council don’t care, it’s not coming out if their pockets.
Every year max rise in tax, increase in parking etc, and cuts. That is with extremely low inflation.
And hardly any jobs on the Island.
Yet talk of more properties being built.
Where will these people work!
Many of these people that will fill the ‘social housing properties’ have never worked, will never work. They claim every benefit in existence. BUT, this IOW Council get payed large amounts of money for taking such like from the mainland ghettos and housing them here. The island will be ruined. Vote these councillors out who support this.
We all can’t keep sitting back and letting this corrupt, inward looking council keep robbing us all blind!! What a slap in the face?! Vote these imbeciles out in May. Charlatans the lot of them.
Money grabbing………. What is it a competition to see how quickly they can push people into financial povity!
Let’s save money by doing away with at least half of the councillors preferable those who get the most money which would have to include that expensive waste of time head of the council and then review the situation
So we pay a lot more for a lot less and they spend more on ways to make more money from us.
Another inflation busting rise with a crap load more on top for some precept that should be paid for out the what we pay already. A stealthy 12% increase.
They are saying they have had it hard, what an insult to the people of the isle of wight. Wish we all had money to invest through this hardship we are going through and it certainly won’t “provide the best life experiences we can for all of our community”. More likely push a lot of families over the financial cliff, leading to more social problems, increased suicides and money based rows in many homes causing horrible family environments.
Then when you are unable to pay your bills they will take you to court, fine you and set the debt collectors on you adding vastly to your debts. Well done Isle of wight council, give yourselves a pat on the back.
The 100% increase in the overnight parking charge was, sadly, highly predictable – once again the weak regulation around parking charges allows motorists to be used as a cash cow.
I suspect that even if we all sold our cars and replaced it with bikes they’d find a way to introduce a charge for using cycle clips.
So many facts & figures but hey we can buy a 10 year lease on a St Helens beach hut, oh well that’s OK then!!
Cuts cuts and cuts ,council tax rise and bearing in mind there pay rises and pensions , council makes me sick
Dont forget there expenses!
Not making sense ,2 average speed cameras £300,000 and don’t even make any money. More Traffic warden’s to raise only £13,000 . Cremations up 7% when they have had busiest year ever. Country Hall car park full of little Kia Picantos. Care costs up ?. For £270 a month all I get is an empty bin. Takes a death/prison sentence and thousands in specialist and consultant fees to tell us the hedge needs cutting back. Lots of brown envelopes and back handers. Not long before we have increasing crime.
Vote them out, it doesn’t matter if Labour or independents win, just stop voting Tory.
“Our costs go up, your costs go up. lt’s only logical.”
Look at the disgusting amount of money CONTINUALLY WASTED on the Floating Disaster. You kept dipping into the purse and paying out with our, the residents of the IOW Council Tax money.
So the Councillors take a pay rise, whilst those who at the moment cannot because of the current situation get hit even harder, there are lots of people losing their jobs at the moment and all the councils can do is hike up the taxes …
More rip off charges, more corrupt cuts, more scum slums built to ship the low life into. What better sh*t is there for the local people to look forward to who are already struggling to survive?
Who polices the overnight parking charges? If I park after 6pm and leave before 8am do they now employ overnight wardens? Even if the answer is yes how do they check every car park. This council are a joke and why can’t we the people they are supposed to serve have a say or vote on any of these issues? We all need to refuse to pay the increase but that’s not possible if you pay by direct debit unfortunately. The biggest insult is that they awarded themselves a pay rise! If only we could all do the same.
As long as they don’t care about the benefit scroungers this country will just sink deeper and deeper. I don’t mind giving to the people in need but this island is full of scammers.
The solution is to build 20000 more houses but sooner or later they will be out of land and the island when it gets to 90:10 bennyscrounger/worker rate will be left to rot.
Who would be better than the Brown envelope council Co.? Anyone to start with.
If voted out, that’s always a new opportunity. If not, there will be even more envelopes flying around.
I hope the young lifeworthy people can leave this island for good.
Will the speed cameras be sited at accident blacks spots or where they will raise the most revenue?
What do you think?!
Just the same old story…getting less each year but some how paying more for it.Make sure you lot got enough for your pension pots tho,wouldn’t want you going short in retirement…
Well that covers the extra costs for the floating bridge and the council employees pension rises.
But remember the elections are this year.
Are we having to pay more council tax to fund the council’s next pay rise and expenses? Has the council ever thought of making second homeowners pay more than those of us who live here permanently
Erm, because they spend less time on the isle and drain fewer resources? While being banned from visiting their 2nd homes half the time? Seems reasonable…
Would like to query why with all the newly built houses in recent years, surely this extra income is going into the pot. Albeit some extra costs for these properties will be incurred by council, but only a small percentage.
Can someone confirm what all the derelict properties in Sandown and other areas are paying to be eyesores?
More money we got to find as we are in a pandemic and people being made redundant then why keep putting the council tax in the last couple of years I think they shud reduce the council tax as we are in a pandemic at the moment greedy gits