Harlow Council Leader accuses Harlow Conservatives of misleading residents over Council Tax rises

AT a Full Council meeting last Thursday (27 February) the Labour administration voted through Council Tax rates for Harlow resident for 2020/2021.
Labour leader Mark Ingall said: “Residents should be aware that 85p in every £1 we collect goes straight to Tory controlled Essex County Council and we have absolutely no control over the demands they make for more money from Harlow residents.

“Council Tax payers will notice when they get their bills that their Council Tax is increasing by £55 a year for a Band C property. Of that, just £4.92 a year or 9p a week is an increase from Harlow Council. The vast majority of the increase – £45.04 of the £55 – is an increase levied by the Conservatives in Essex County Council. On top of that, another £5.04 a year increase is being levied on Harlow residents by the Conservative Police and Fire Commissioner for Essex.

“So of the £55 increase, less than £5 is due to Harlow Labour but more than £50 is due to the Conservatives , yet in Harlow the Conservatives are trying to present themselves as a Council Tax cutting party, which I think is very misleading.

“To add insult to injury, Tory Councillors who serve on both Harlow District Council and Essex County Council and who have done nothing publicly to oppose the huge rises imposed on Harlow’s residents by Essex at meetings of Essex County Council, in an act of rank hypocrisy, voted against those very same increases in Harlow Council’s budget setting meeting last Thursday.”