Cornwall Council sets tax rise of 2.99% and £45m for care

The budget contains an extra £45m support for adult social care services

Cornwall Council has approved its budget for the next financial year, including a 2.99% increase for council tax payers.

The plan will see Cornwall Council's council tax charge rise by 1.99%, plus an additional 1% for the government's adult social care precept.

The total increase, agreed at a full council meeting, means a rise of 96p a week for a band D property.

The budget contains an extra £45m support for adult social care services.

Conservative and Cornwall Council leader Linda Taylor: Cornwall has a brighter future

The budget also includes £1.3bn of capital investment, including "support for economic growth projects that create homes and jobs for residents and reflect their priorities", said the majority Conservative group.

The leader of the council, Conservative Linda Taylor, said after the meeting on Tuesday that the budget "sets us on course for a brighter future" and would "meet the key priorities" of "vibrant safe and supportive communities" and a "thriving, sustainable Cornwall".

Fellow Conservative David Harris, deputy leader, said the "huge investment" in adult social care reflected "demand due to the pandemic and our demographic pressures of an aging population in Cornwall".

A 30% increase in tolls for the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry between Cornwall and Plymouth, which will see the toll for a car go from £2 to 2.60, was also approved.

That rise is due to be implemented in January 2023.

Toll rises on the Tamar Bridge have been approved and are due in January 2023

After the meeting, Labour councillor Jayne Kirkham said that adult social care was still being asked to make cuts of £22m despite the "£45m that has been diverted from other departments to shore up the gaping hole".

"We are losing day centres and respite services, and numbers of care visits for people are being cut," she said.

"Front-line social worker and care practitioners are going. Once social work posts are deleted, we won't get them back."

Councillor Leigh Frost, economy lead for the Liberal Democrat group, said "essential services" were being "slashed" and council tax was "being forced up by a Conservative Party who has nobody to blame but themselves".

Households' total council tax bills will also depend on precepts by the police, fire service, plus city, town and parish councils.