On Thursday 15 February South Oxfordshire District Council agreed its 2018/19 budget, including more than £600,000 over three years to create a new team to tackle local environmental issues to make public areas in South Oxfordshire look more attractive.
More than £1.4 million is being made available in grants to support community projects, such as improvements to village halls and to charities who provide services to vulnerable people.
The district council will invest a further £100,000 to help address air quality issues and to identify new green travel initiatives, and more than £290,000 will be made available per year to help meet the increased demands on the council’s planning service.
This year marks the first time in nine years that the district council has needed to raise its share of the council tax. However, thanks to many years of careful financial management, the increase is just £5 per household for the entire year, with council tax for services provided by South Oxfordshire District Council remaining among the lowest in the country.
Cllr Jane Murphy, Cabinet Member for Finance at South Oxfordshire District Council, said: "In this year’s budget we’ve set aside significant funding to boost community projects across the district and launch a new team to allow us to better tackle key environment concerns such as fly-tipping, graffiti and grass cutting."
"Like all authorities across the country, due to reduction in funding available to us, we have had make some tough decisions on this year’s budget. Although we’ve had to raise council tax for the first time in nine years we have kept this rise to an absolute minimum of just £5 over the entire year."
