Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Orkney councillors back 3% rise in council tax – despite officials recommending they increase it by 7.7%

Orkney Islands Council's headquarters in Kirkwall. Picture by Sandy McCook
Orkney Islands Council's headquarters in Kirkwall. Picture by Sandy McCook

Orkney councillors have said council tax in the county should be increased by 3%.

Officials recommended a rise of 7.7% but, at a special meeting of the policy and resources committee on Tuesday, councillors said increased costs of living and an upcoming hike in electricity bills had to be considered.

Councillor Steven Heddle put forth an amendment proposing the 3% increase.

He said he felt the mood of his fellow councillors was that they couldn’t accept the suggested above-inflation 7.7% rise.

Council tax freeze would not solve the problem

However, he also said a freeze wouldn’t solve any problems, either.

Councillor Heddle said: “A freeze would be storing up problems for the future, we’ve got to reflect the fact that we’re already in the situation where we’ve got, if not the lowest council tax, one of the lowest council taxes.

“It’s been a favourable situation, basically forever.

“I think the prudent way forward here would be to keep pace with inflation, to not come up with something that’s out of the ordinary.”

Mr Heddle explained in his amendment that this means the band D council tax level for the year will be set at £1,244.73.

Councillor Steven Heddle outside the Orkney council chamber.

His amendment was seconded by Leslie Manson.

He said the recommended increase would be “a slap in the face” to a public that is aware that if it wants services, it has to pay for them.

Councillor Manson said:  “This is really all about what we do with the reserves and you have to ask yourself, what are the reserves for?

“They help us to springboard certain initiatives and so on, but one of the phrases you hear often is that the reserves are here for a rainy day.

‘You have to ask yourself, what are our reserves for?’

“It doesn’t matter how you look at this, a 7.7% increase is really unacceptable.

“The whole community has gone through a terrible couple of years and we’ve been seen to support our business community very well.”

Orkney council’s deputy leader, Leslie Manson.

Councillor Manson also said he believed the current situation wouldn’t last and Orkney would get better budget settlements from the Scottish Government in the future.

He also pointed to the council’s own money-raising plans as reasons to see a brighter financial future for the isles council.

This includes the money expected as a result of the ScotWind offshore wind projects.

With May’s council election nearing, the rise would hit the pockets of voters just before they go to the polls.

Councillor David Dawson said people were “furious” with the idea of a 7.7% increase.

He said he’d had more representation in the last 72-hours than he’d seen on any issue for a long time.

Orkney council trying to balance books after disappointment with budget settlement

A council tax rise of 3% wasn’t the only option discussed. Councillor Rob Crichton put forward a 5% increase and Graham Sinclair suggested a 4% increase.

However, these both fell to Mr Heddle’s 3%.

The backdrop to this is that Orkney council has to balance its books. There has been disappointment with the one-off annual budget settlement from the Scottish Government of £83.9million for the financial year.

Orkney council leaders have claimed this is the worst settlement for a council in Scotland

The decisions adopted at the meeting will now go to full council to be ratified.