Isle of Wight residents will have to pay more Council Tax for the new combined Hampshire and Isle of Wight fire authority — but mainlanders will not, for now.
From next year, Islanders will have to pay a fire precept — like the ones for town and parish councils and the Police — towards the costs of the new combined fire authority, in an act of ‘council tax harmonisation’.
Last year, it was decided Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority would become a combined fire authority serving both sides of the Solent, fully serving its role from April 2021.
A full meeting of the Isle of Wight Council heard that in order to pay for the service, Island Band D council taxpayers will pay £69.06 (for a Band D property), on top of council tax from 2021, for the first year. However, £62.18 of this will come from the existing allowance for fire in their council tax bill, meaning the actual increase will be £6.88 per annum.
This will produce £370,000 more for the fire budget.
However, across the water in Hampshire, residents will not change how much they pay towards the precept initially as they have already been paying more in a separate tax for their Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority.
This has been determined as a baseline before any other increases to council tax and precepts are made — so Island residents will pay to match the precept tax level in Hampshire and then potentially more if it is decided to raise taxes in February 2021.
Although it was voted through by the Isle of Wight Council, with 24 votes in favour and 1 abstention, 12 councillors voted against the new proposals for the new tax level — calling it a stealth tax and saying it would put the Island in a situation where it seems to be paying more with no guarantee of anything in return.
Cllr Michael Lilley said he was confused by the proposal and that it was not fair for the Island. He said:
“It seems to me, even though we have given away all the capital assets regarding the fire service, that actually we Island residents are paying an extra amount for it”.
Cllr Debbie Andre, leader of the Island Independent Group, said she could understand the rationale behind precept but could not vote for it. She said:
“I am at a loss to how I can explain this to my residents, where on the face of it the impact on residents in Hampshire is nil but the impact on residents of the Isle of Wight is that they are going to be paying yet another tax at this time where they can ill afford to pay it.”
Cllr Reg Barry said the Conservative councillors had wanted to ‘get rid of’ the Island’s service since they took control in 2017. He said:
“Not only are they getting rid of it, the Isle of Wight people are going to have to pay more for it, I think that is a shame but nothing can be done. In the end, there will be nothing left on the Isle of Wight, it will all be run from Hampshire.”
However, Cllr Gary Peace, cabinet member for community safety, said opposition members were looking at the issue in ‘completely the wrong way’ as the current service was not good as it wasn’t being funded properly. He said:
“This is the only way we can fund it, this is the only way we can upskill our own officers and the Hampshire officers.
“This is about increasing safety and resilience for this Island and for our people and actually it is a really small price to pay to have increased resources, increased fire engines, increased training and a better service.”
Cllr Dave Stewart, leader of the council, reminded councillors we “can’t have our cake and eat it” as all the liabilities moved over to the new fire authority as well as the assets.
Once again the council find a pitiful excuse to put up council tax. What a load of cobblers.
Totally discussing state of affairs our island fire service do a wonderfull job without mainland interference typical council attitude
what are you discussing
Sorry spelling mistake
So we pay more for something we didn’t want in the first place controlled by people we have no say with.
Keep it local and keep it under control I say.
Now that’s a surprise a council tax rise
Let’s hope they provide full fire cover at all stations at all times
Disgusting, they keep adding little extra’s on the council tax, which in itself will only increase, but they can then ‘tell us’ the council tax has only risen by a smaller amount than it ‘truly has’, BUT we then have to pay extras for Police, Fire, adult care etc, etc.
Like seeing the price of a meal, but being charged for heating it, washing the plate, having it carried to your table. You ‘assumed’ that ‘all that’ was to be included, as it once was, but makes the ‘Menu’ price appear cheaper.
Vote this council OUT.
Can have best trained fire officer,best equipment and fire trucks,but no good when takes 30mins plus to get to fire/crashed car as fire stations closed/no personnel. Why we keep paying more for less?. Can’t get police on 101 without 20/30min wait. Not so long ago could call Ventnor ,Cowes , Newport police station direct and they would respond within mins, progress is now backwards.love getting old.
Exactly!! What a bunch of twatts putting up council tax just because of merger….in my logic of thinking if you combine two “forces” the whole thing becomes cheaper!! no more expensive. And in any case if there was a serious major incident on the island, the emergency services would never be able to cope, as it stands now, there is only ever six emergency ambulances to cover the whole island….
If it was for a pay rise for the fire fighters then not a problem but not for back handers
This is the problem with out sourcing everything it comes more expensive and of poorer quality, just look at the poor street cleaning , the poor state of the parks and flower beds around the island and dreadfully poor roads that have been badly top dressed, at great expense, all those job were undertaken by council staff not 30 years ago. Staff cared about the job they did and not run by badly run big multinational companies who don’t give a dam about the quality of our lives, do you think Hampshire county council will worry about us? I doubt it, it will be very interesting to see what investment they put in to the island fire service .
Yet again, we the tax payer will be paying more for less and the next message from this absolutely wonderful council will be?
Yes you guessed it, a huge pay rise for all the councillors who will say, we must pay the going rate to attract the right sort of Councillor who do an excellent job ! ! ! !
Stop giving yourselves pay rises, councillors, stop handing out our money to benefit leeches and alleged care in the community cases and start making serious cuts across the board, which includes the amount being rinsed from the working taxpayer
Completely correct Councillor Steward you can not have your cake and eat it so why don’t you and the rest of your money wasting councillors stop taking us tax payers for a ride ,let’s get rid of at least half of you,including you, and cut the expenses paid to the remainder by at least fifty percent.Then there will more money to spend on the Island services and not need to every year put up council tax
Cut the councillors expenses, allowance and perks, then we’ll see how many are doing it for ” service to the community” , and how many are in it for the Kudos and cash. I know of one councillor who regularly gave his annual allowance to his local parish council, only doing it to help the community, but wouldn’t bend to the wishes of the hierarchy, and was pretty much forced out.