Council tax to go up as Gosport Borough Council faces a £1.4m deficit

At a Gosport Borough Council meeting on Wednesday night, Conservative council leader Councillor Mark Hook outlined the council’s budget for the next 12 months – while warning of a £1.4m funding deficit that must be made up in the next three years.

Cllr Hook warned that that ‘these are still difficult times’, but that the future looks bright as big businesses take an interest in what the town has to offer.

The council is expecting a government funding reduction of around £700,000 over the next three years, while pension costs go up by around £300,000.

£488,000 will be taken out of the council’s reserves to help offset this – but the borough’s council tax will also increase by the maximum legal amount of 2.99 per cent.

In lighter news, however, the council has also pledged £25,000 to improving the town’s Christmas lights this year.

Cllr Hook says that these decisions mean that there will be no cuts to council services.

He explained: ‘We will continue to take difficult decisions for the benefit of Gosport residents.

‘It is through economic regeneration and development that we can drive up the economic prosperity of the borough.

‘There will be no cuts to frontline services, improved safety through additional resources in enforcement and we will realise further economic growth.

‘This budget offers a plan and a determination to go through with it.’

But the budgetary decisions have been criticised by the Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Peter Chegwyn, who fears that the council could go ‘over a financial cliff’.

He said: 'I could do with the rose-tinted specs that Cllr Hook has, because the reality is very different.

‘Everyone can see that the town is dying before our eyes, but council tax goes up yet again.

‘This council is being led blindly forward over a financial cliff and I worry what state the council will be inherited in by 2020.

‘Just like Gosport Borough Football Club, Cllr Hook will leave it for someone else to pick up the pieces.

‘A lot of this is because of the government though – and I fear local councils will be left only providing what they have to, rather than what they should.’

Fellow Liberal Democrat councillor, Cllr Rob Hylands, believes the budget difficulties are ‘ironic’.

He said: ‘I can see the irony of the Conservatives lamenting difficult changes caused by their own party in government.

‘What we have here in Gosport are plans for new homes but no jobs for these people – and this budget is worrying news for residents and business; it just doesn’t look like things are getting any better.’

But chairman of the economic development board, Cllr Stephen Philpott, insists that the budget is robust – saying that Cllr Chegwyn ‘just wants to get a headline’.

Cllr Philpott said: ‘Cllr Hook’s budget speech was full of examples of what the town is achieving – contrast that with the appalling rant from Cllr Chegwyn who just wants to get a headline with words like decay and failure.

‘You can sense the hatred and venom – he hates this place and we’re still waiting to hear what he’s doing about it.’

Cllr Hook added: ‘Cllr Chegwyn is all rhetoric and no substance – this is the standard of debate we get now, and it’s disappointing.’