Tomorrow East Cambridgeshire District Council’s Finance & Assets Committee was to be asked:

The draft budget outlined a number of proposals, including

• Stopping saving up to repair or refurbish the A10 Leisure Centre, but spending the money on ‘other leisure providers across the District’
• Creating a £100,000 fund for its ‘CLTs’ (East Cambs cut itself adrift from the Combined Authority’s CLT programme and is going it alone)
• Increasing the Council’s share of council tax by £5 per year for a Band D household – up from £142.14 to £147.14

However, late on Friday afternoon we were told this entire recommendation is to be scrapped. Instead, a proposal will be made by Conservative councillors Anna Bailey and Bill Hunt, deleting the entire recommendation.

The effect of this is that the Finance & Assets Committee will make no proposals at all to the Council’s budget meeting on 22 February.

A £5 increase in Council Tax would net £155,576 in additional revenue in 2022/23. In recent years East Cambridgeshire has experienced a council tax freeze of Narnian proportions. Cllrs Bailey and Hunt are clearly keen for that to continue, meaning they expect to find that £155,576 somewhere else.

We’re waiting to see the rabbit they intend to pull out of the hat on Budget day.