Significant cuts from Government funding has left Westmorland and Furness Council with no choice but to make ‘difficult’ decisions which include an increase to council tax.

Councillors at Westmorland and Furness Council reluctantly agreed to a 4.99 percent council tax increase alongside the following changes.

• A new annual charge of £60 per bin for garden waste collections. This charge will only be applied to residents who choose to use the service and will be managed through an annual subscription.
• Car park charges will be increased by around 10 percent.
• Increases in the charges for the use of Windermere Ferry, and the removal of the ‘Blue Badge’ exemption and
• That other fees and charges are increased in line with inflation.

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Andrew Jarvis, said: “Our council has suffered grievously in the Government’s funding settlement.

“Given the scale and loss of funding from government which is circa £43 million over the next three years, we have had no choice but to recommend the implementation of increased council tax and charges that will sadly affect every resident in the Westmorland and Furness area.

“£43m is possibly too large a number to be meaningful.

“So let me describe it another way.

“The Government is cutting their funding over the next three years by around £400 for each and every household in the Westmorland and Furness area.”

Councillor Jarvis continued: “What I would add is that as a responsible authority with a strong grip on our finances we have already been looking at how much we can save by fundamentally challenging what the council does and how it does it.

“This has been a difficult budget to propose and vote through.

“It includes changes to charges that we would have all preferred to have avoided.

“It also includes a series of workforce savings of circa £5 million that includes a reshaping of our senior management team.

“Reductions to our workforce is not easy or ideal.

“We have a hardworking, committed workforce who are focused on providing essential services to our residents and this budget lets us retain all front-line services.

“Implementing changes that affect our residents and our staff are always hard and challenging, but this is something we must do now if we are to continue to balance our budget and provide the level of service our residents deserve.”

The Westmorland and Furness Labour group voted against the changes with group leader Councillor Derek Brook saying: “The Liberal Democrats will try to say that savings and cost increases in this budget are the fault of the Labour government.

“We say, the government is not responsible for the Council’s financial mismanagement, lack of transformation, or poor governance.

“Council tax has increased by the maximum amount every year since Westmorland and Furness Council was created, and that was a choice made by this administration.

“We cannot support a budget built behind closed doors and paid for by those already under the most pressure.

“Residents are being asked to pay more for less, and that is something we cannot endorse.”

The Group welcomed the inclusion of their amendment to the budget to replace cuts to locality board grant funding in 2027/28.