Bolton Council’s proposed budget is likely to see council tax bills rise by 3.8 per cent from April.
The council have made some changes to their two-year budget agreed in February 2021 which imposed massive cuts of £37M.
The council said their changes would 'limit council tax increases while protecting the most vulnerable by removing £4m of planned cuts'.
The draft 2022/23 budget would see Bolton Council’s portion of the bill rise by 3.12 per cent.
The leader of the Conservative- run authority, Martyn Cox, said that was lower than the optional maximum increase which was available to the council.
The increase includes an extra 1.13 per cent on the adult social care precept which provides ringfenced funding to support vulnerable adults.
Changes to Bolton Council’s element of the council tax are the equivalent of 63p a week for a typical Band A property.
The mayoral precept, which is decided by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, would take the overall increase to 3.8.per cent.
Following the funding settlement from central government, the council is not putting forward additional service cuts during the 2022/23 financial year.
He said an additional £4m has also been provided to fund social care.
The council will use this funding to protect our most vulnerable residents by removing previously proposed cuts to adult and children’s services.
Alongside this, an extra £1m of funding has been identified for highways projects together with £100,000 to improve parking near Moss Bank Park.
Coun Cox, said: “This is a challenging time for local councils with additional pressures to come with rising energy costs and increases in national insurance contributions.
“But we are determined not to pass these added costs directly on to Bolton households at a time when budgets are being stretched.
“While some increases are inevitable, we feel this below-inflation rise will strike the right balance needed to protect the services we all rely on.”
The proposed changes to council tax will be subject to a vote at the meeting of Full Council on February 16.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester is responsible for additional council tax precepts to fund the police, fire and other mayoral services.
The proposed increases to these rates will be discussed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on February 11.
Opposition Labour leader, Coun Nick Peel, said: “The council has no grounds to celebrate simply because the government aren’t imposing any additional cuts on them on what is already a £37M two-year budget cut.
“It’s akin to thanking the person who is beating you around the head with a stick for temporarily stopping hitting you.”
Liberal Democrat leader Coun Roger Hayes, said: “In total, Bolton has suffered cuts of £225 million since 2010/11.
“That is entirely due to Government cuts in funding, and has had very damaging effects on services.
“Liberal Democrats were only persuaded not to vote against the budget last year by the administration agreeing to two things: reversing a proposed pay cut to employees and contacting the Prime Minister, Secretary of State and the borough’s MPs in the strongest terms to point out that even statutory services are at risk due to the funding cuts and that better funding was needed in the future.
“We are pleased that this year’s settlement has allowed fewer cuts to be made in children’s and adult services.
“However, there are still many cuts in other services – the ones that effect most people like road maintenance, parks and libraries.
“We are pleased that Liberal Democrats have persuaded the administration to allocate £1 million to resurfacing of residential roads.
“Although this is only a drop in the ocean when compared with the massive maintenance backlog, it is something.
“We will continue to push for more.
“The money allocated for parking improvements in the area of Moss Bank Park will meet a promise made by the previous Leader of the council.”
