Fire service raises council tax for Peterborough and Cambridgeshire residents

The meeting of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority also agreed a 1.91 per cent increase in its share of council tax for 2020/21.

For an average Band D property the cost will be £72.09 for this year.

Treasurer for the Fire Authority, Matthew Warren, said that a public consultation showed 78 per cent of people who responded were supportive of the increase.

Mr Warren also said the budget for 2020/21 was “the first year in a long time that our funding wasn’t cut”. But he described the increase in the government grant this year as “not hugely significant”.

Speaking after the meeting, chief fire officer Chris Strickland said: “We are pleased that for the first time for around about 10 years the grant funding that we get from central government has gone up – by around one per cent.

“It’s not in line with inflation, it’s a bit under, but it’s better than it has been in previous years because we have had an ongoing amount to cut for the last 10 years or so.

“All in all we have in effect a standstill budget. Not an increase in real terms, but nevertheless enough for us to keep the service running as it is for the next year.”

He said the fire service’s annual budget is approximately what it was in 2010 – around £30 million.

Ben Hatton, Local Democracy Reporting Service