Mansfield council tax hikes ‘inevitable’ as councillors agree rise is best way forward

Andy Abrahams spoke after councillors in charge of inspecting the authority’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 financial year agreed that a maximum rise in the tax is fair.

At a meeting on January 6, Labour councillor Paul Henshaw, who chairs the council’s overview & scrutiny committee for corporate resources, presented a report to the Labour cabinet noting the committee’s contentment with the budget going to the full council on February 3.

Announced in November by cabinet member for finance, Coun Craig Whitby (Lab), the next year’s budget contained plans to raise council tax by 2.99 per cent to plug a £228,000 deficit.

It also proposed a hike in fees and charges for services such as cemeteries, planning applications, room hire, car parks and allotments.

But the subscription rate for the council’s garden waste collection service will remain the same, at £42 per bin and £25 for any additional bins.

They will continue to be collected fortnightly between March and December.

Coun Henshaw said: “A few years ago we had to make some difficult decisions, as did a lot of local authorities.

“The way forward, I would suggest, is marginally better.

"As a committee, we try to make sure that any recommendations we put forward are helpful.

“We want to make sure that Mansfield Council has the ability to provide services for the people of the district.

"We have to make sure that the services we provide are first class and the only way we can do that is by having a good financial background and making sure things are costed, and listening to the people that use the services and then move forward.

“We’ve been critical of administrations here that have not increased council tax in past years because of the knock on effect.

"So there were members of the committee from the opposition even that were in agreement that it should go up.”

Overview and scrutiny committees, which are made up of councillors from any party, are legally required to exist in councils to pore over the decisions made by the ruling party in detail.

Mansfield has three, including one for place and one for communities and services

The corporate resources committee, which looks at the budget and anything else related to financial matters, is made up mainly of Labour councillors but also of Reform councillor Barry Answer and Conservative Andre Camilleri.

At the meeting, in response to Coun Henshaw, Coun Whitby said: “I welcome the scrutiny process, particularly because it’s a cross-party process.”

And Mayor Andy Abrahams said he was ‘proud’ of the councillors working together to come to the agreement, adding that it is ‘really commendable’ that the authority’s deficit has continued to reduce year-on-year.

He said: “The big picture here is 60 per cent reduction in funding from Governments throughout austerity and the demand and cost of providing services is still increasing.

“It’s really commendable that each year we’ve managed to cut our cloth again according to our means but still maintained a high level of service provisions.

“Council tax and rent rises and things like that are inevitable because we’ve got to deliver services for those that need it and to keep pace with inflation.

"I’m really proud of the fact that we are all still working together in what are still extremely challenging times yet.”