WELLINGBOROUGH Council is set to put pressure on David Cameron in a bid to keep the money it collects in business rates.
Deputy leader of the council, Cllr Paul Bell, wants people in the borough to benefit from the money and not see it disappear into the Coalition Government’s pot.
Now, the council is going to speak to Wellingborough and Rushden MP Peter Bone to see what he can do to help.
With financial belts being tightened and less money given to local authorities, Cllr Bell feels being allowed to keep this money would benefit the people of the borough.
He said: “We have to look to the future as our level of funding will not be the same.
“We have to give what we collect in business rates back to the Government.
“We would like to keep the business rates as if we did this it would benefit the people of the borough and businesses.
“Why should business rates collected in Wellingborough go and pay for something in Manchester.
“We will be talking to our MP to call on the Government to allow us to retain our business rates.
“We would like the money to stay in the borough or at worst stay in the county.”
Wellingborough Council is making cuts ahead of the Government’s financial statement in October.
At present the authority is facing budget reductions of £2.5million to £3million in the next two to three years. It is set to restructure its senior management axing 23 positions.
So far the council has saved £1.4m without stopping any of its frontline services.
It has saved £75,000 by not employing staff from agencies and £100,000 by stopping travel tokens.
Cllr Bell, talking about cuts, said: “It will open a new way of thinking and a different way of doing this.
“Why do we need people working in an office when with modern laptops they could work from home? At the moment we have Sheep Street, Swanspool House and Trafalgar House.
“Do we need all four council buildings or could we do the same thing with two or three buildings.”
Cllr Bell does not want the council making soft option cuts which would not bring long-term solutions.
He wants savings to be made which would make £50,000 this year and £50,000 next year.
He explained one of the ways of making savings was through back office work and joining up with Northamptonshire County Council, East Northamptonshire Council or Kettering Borough Council.
Cllr Bell said: “In the last few years in order to keep the council tax low we have been using reserves and at the present situation we are running out of reserves.
“Next year there will be a zero increase in council tax.
“This is what the Government wants to happen and we need to see if they will give us the £100,000 or we will have to find it ourselves.”
