Council tax will rise by 2.99 per cent in Bristol after the city council passed its budget at the second attempt. But the pact agreed in advance between Labour mayor Marvin Rees’s administration and opposition Conservatives, which ensured the financial plans for the next 12 months and beyond had enough votes, was blasted as an “unholy alliance” and an anti-democratic “stitch-up”.
It means the local authority’s portion of council tax will rise by £55.20 to £1,901.22 for an average Band D property and by £42.93 to £1,478.72 for Band B households, which are the most numerous in the city. Adding on the much smaller increases for Avon & Somerset Police and Avon Fire Authority, total bills landing on Band D doormats from April 1 will be £2,230.37 and for Band B £1,734.74.
Full council, which met on Wednesday (March 2), first had to decide on the budget as amended at the previous meeting last month when members voted in favour of five of the nine sets of proposed opposition changes – four by the Greens and one by Knowle Community Party, but none of the Conservatives’.
