East Cambridgeshire District Council freezes council tax for 12th year in a row

A council tax freeze has been agreed for a twelfth year by East Cambridgeshire District Council - by one vote.

A Band D household will continue to pay the council £142.14 a year for its share of the bill in the financial year 2025-26.

Residents will face a rise in council tax, as other authorities in the county have increased their shares.

Cllr Anna Bailey, the Conservative leader of the council, said she was “very proud” the authority had not put up council tax for 12 years.

She told a full council meeting on 25 February that the council had “yet again managed to show a balanced budget for the next two years with no cuts”.

She highlighted plans to keep free car parking in town centres.

Budget papers showed a gap of £5.2million is still forecast in 2027-28.

Opposition councillors argued the council could be doing more for people in the area.

An amendment put forward by the Liberal Democrat and Independent group called for more money to be invested into arts and tourism.

Group leader Cllr Lorna Dupré said tourism and the arts were “good things to have in their own right, but also important contributors to the local economy”.

She noted that the council had passed over responsibility of some tourism and arts facilities to the City of Ely Council, which she claimed enabled the authority to “avoid costly maintenance of buildings”.

Cllr Dupré said: “Times have been difficult for many in tourism and arts. A real helping hand at this stage could make all the difference.”

The amendment also requested money be set aside to fund the initial set-up costs for introducing civil parking enforcement and to run it in future years.

Cllr Mark Inskip (Lib Dem, Sutton) said the issue of people ignoring parking restrictions was something often raised by residents, who asked “why we cannot be like other councils”. He argued some people “ignore restrictions because they won’t be ticketed”.

The opposition also called for the council to drop plans and funding for its crematorium project for Mepal, which they called a “white elephant”.

Cllr Dupré (Lib Dem, Sutton) said the crematorium was “unwanted and unneeded” and said it would “drag the council into a price war” with existing commercial crematoriums in the area.

Cllr Bailey (Con, Downham) accused the opposition of “seeing a saving and immediately trying to spend it”.

She said the only authority that was allowed to introduce civil parking enforcement was Cambridgeshire County Council and suggested it should be the one to pay for it.

And she argued that stopping work on plans for the bereavement centre would remove the future income and provide “no plan” for the site.

She noted that the council did run a tourism service, but said the City of Ely Council had approached the authority years ago to request to take over the assets and responsibility for them.

The opposition amendment failed to get enough support to pass and the budget was approved by 14 votes to 13.