COUNCILLORS have crossed swords over whether Forest of Dean residents should have been charged almost a three-quarter-of-a-million pounds extra in Council Tax over past years.

The conflict arose over the first draft of this year’s budget which was presented to the authority’s ruling Cabinet just before Christmas.

At that meeting, councillor Roger James, the deputy leader and Cabinet member for finance said, in a presentation, that financial advisors thought the reason some councils found themselves in financial difficulties now was because they had frozen Council Tax in previous years.

Cllr James added at that meeting: “If this council had not followed a similar practice from 2011 up to 2018/2019, its revenue reserve would potentially be better off by some £705,000.”

But Conservative leader councillor Brian Robinson, whose party lead the authority until 2017 when a Rainbow Cabinet of independent elected members took charge, has taken exception to the claim.

And, in a question to this month’s Cabinet, he said: “You suggest that you would have preferred to have increased Council Tax in previous years so that local residents were charged £705,000 more?”

FULL STORY AND REACTION FROM COUNCILLOR JAMES IN THIS WEEK’S FORESTER