‘Our plan for a cleaner, safer Hull’: Lib Dem budget passed at city council

IN CONTROL: Hull City Council leader Mike Ross, centre, with Liberal Democrat members at the Guildhall

By Simon Bristow

The Liberal Democrats’ budget for 2023/24 has been passed by Hull City Council, which the party hailed as a plan for a “cleaner, safer” city.

The budget, which was passed at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, will see a council tax increase of 4.99 per cent - the maximum allowed - which includes a two per cent precept for adult social care.

An opposition Labour amendment, including a proposed council tax rise of 2.99 per cent, was unsuccessful.

The Lib Dems, who swept to power in Hull in the Local Elections last May, ending more than a decade of Labour rule, said they could now press on with their priorities.

The headline measures in the ruling party’s budget include:

• A new £1m Spring Clean programme to deliver a thorough clean-up of local neighbourhoods

• A new £1.5m High Streets Support Fund, to support shoppers and traders in making their neighbourhood high street a cleaner, better, safer place

• A doubling of the Crime Prevention Fund to £500,000, described as “cash in the bank to help communities fight crime in their local area”

• £100,000 to create new parks and green spaces “where people want them, in the heart of local neighbourhoods”.

The debate over the authority’s spending over the next financial year has raised the political temperature at the Guildhall ahead of the next round of Local Elections in May.

Labour group leader, Councillor Daren Hale, called the Lib Dems’ council tax rise, and a rent rise of seven per cent, “indefensible and cruel” amid a cost of living crisis.

But in a statement after the budget was passed, Councillor Mike Ross, the Lib Dem leader of the city council, said: “Today, Labour voted down the Liberal Democrats’ plans to make Hull a cleaner place to live.

“Labour's budget plan would take the city’s finances to the brink, let residents down and make savage cuts to council services. Meanwhile, the Government have sold Hull out and not given residents a fair deal.

“The choice at the next election is clear, investment into communities and to tackle the issues people care about with the Liberal Democrats, or Labour bosses who will just let the city down for years to come.”